title: Experimental measurement of the strength of a C alpha-H...O bond in a lipid bilayer.
abstract: Due to the apolar nature of the lipid bilayer, the weak Calpha-H...O H-bond is thought to contribute significantly toward the stability of transmembrane helical bundles such as glycophorin A (GPA). Here for the first time we measured the strength of such a bond, using vibrational frequency shifts of a dimeric and nondimeric variants of GPA containing a Gly CD2 label. Although the resulting estimated bond strength of 0.88 kcal/mol is relatively weak, several such bonds could contribute significantly toward bundle stabilization.
authors.affiliation: The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Department of Biological Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat-Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Eyal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arbely
authors.forename: Isaiah T
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Arkin
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D002244:Carbon; D006859:Hydrogen; D010100:Oxygen