title: Water and Lipid Bilayers.
abstract: Water is crucial to the structure and function of biological membranes. In fact, the membrane's basic structural unit, i.e. the lipid bilayer, is self-assembled and stabilized by the so-called hydrophobic effect, whereby lipid molecules unable to hydrogen bond with water aggregate in order to prevent their hydrophobic portions from being exposed to water. However, this is just the beginning of the lipid-bilayer-water relationship. This mutual interaction defines vesicle stability in solution, controls small molecule permeation, and defines the spacing between lamella in multi-lamellar systems, to name a few examples. This chapter will describe the structural and dynamical properties central to these, and other water- lipid bilayer interactions.
authors.affiliation: Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA. nickelsjd@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Nickels
authors.affiliation: Biology & Soft Matter and Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA. katsarasj@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Katsaras
mesh_terms: D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D014867:Water
keywords: Dynamics; Permeation; Water distribution