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Dielectric relaxation of hydration water in the Dickerson-Drew duplex solution probed by THz spectroscopy

Son H., Choi D.-H., Jung S., Park J., Park G.-S.
Chemical Physics Letters, 627, 134(2015)
DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2015.03.054

Abstract

The contribution of water to DNA conformational change, DNA-protein interactions, and DNA-ligand recognition has been underlined. Here, we investigate the relaxation process of water around the Dickerson-Drew B-DNA duplex using terahertz spectroscopy. By controlling the DNA concentration, the relaxation time for water reorientation and the width of the DNA hydration layer are determined. We found that a layer of weakly bound hydration water, with a relaxation time of 11.6 ps, extends 7.6 Å from the tight-binding water layer. This result demonstrates that a shell of hydration water, with reorientation time on the order of tens of picoseconds, exists beyond the structurally integrated water usually observed around DNA. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.