What vibrations tell about proteins

Abstract

1. Introduction 3702. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy – general principles 3722.1 Vibrations 3722.2 Information that can be derived from the vibrational spectrum 3722.3 Absorption of IR light 3753. Protein IR absorption 3763.1 Amino-acid side-chain absorption 3763.2 Normal modes of the amide group 3814. Interactions that shape the amide I band 3824.1 Overview 3824.2 Through-bond coupling 3834.3 Hydrogen bonding 3834.4 Transition dipole coupling (TDC) 3835. The polarization and IR activity of amide I modes 3875.1 The coupled oscillator system 3875.2 Optically allowed transitions 3885.3 The infinite parallel β-sheet 3885.4 The infinite antiparallel β-sheet 3895.5 The infinite α-helix 3906. Calculation of the amide I band 3916.1 Overview 3916.2 Perturbation treatment by Miyazawa 3936.3 The parallel β-sheet 3946.4 The antiparallel β-sheet 3956.5 The α-helix 3966.6 Other secondary structures 3987. Experimental analysis of protein secondary structure 3987.1 Band fitting 3987.2 Methods using calibration sets 4017.3 Prediction quality 4038. Protein stability 4048.1 Thermal stability 4048.2 1H/2H exchange 4069. Molecular reaction mechanisms of proteins 4089.1 Reaction-induced IR difference spectroscopy 4089.2 The origin of difference bands 4099.3 The difference spectrum seen as a fingerprint of conformational change 4109.4 Molecular interpretation: strategies of band assignment 41610. Outlook 41911. Acknowledgements 42012. References 420This review deals with current concepts of vibrational spectroscopy for the investigation of protein structure and function. While the focus is on infrared (IR) spectroscopy, some of the general aspects also apply to Raman spectroscopy. Special emphasis is on the amide I vibration of the polypeptide backbone that is used for secondary-structure analysis. Theoretical as well as experimental aspects are covered including transition dipole coupling. Further topics are discussed, namely the absorption of amino-acid side-chains, 1H/2H exchange to study the conformational flexibility and reaction-induced difference spectroscopy for the investigation of reaction mechanisms with a focus on interpretation tools.