Molecular order and hydration property of amine group in phosphatidylethanolamine and its N-methyl derivatives at subzero temperatures

Biophysical Journal
C H Hsieh, W G Wu

Abstract

The molecular order and hydration properties of the amine group in phosphatidylethanolamine and its N-methyl derivatives were studied by 2H-NMR at subzero temperatures. Three coexisting signals with 2H-NMR quadrupolar splittings of 146, 106, and 28.8 KHz were detected from the fully hydrated phosphatidylethanolamine/D2O at the lowest studied temperature of -120 degrees C by using short recycle time in the applied NMR pulse sequence. These signals have been assigned to originate from frozen D2O in the interbilayer space and the deuterated amine group, i.e., -ND, with and without threefold symmetric motions. Comparative 2H-NMR studies of phosphatidylethanolamine/D2O with different degrees of methylation over a temperature range between -40 and -120 degrees C lead to the following conclusions. First, the bond angle of -D attached to the nitrogen atom of the amine group may be determined by the 2H-NMR quadrupolar splittings, i.e., 106 and 28.8 KHz, of the two coexisting signals of the deuterated amine group and found to be 112.9 for the gel-state phosphatidylethanolamine. Second, assuming the applicability of the empirical equation for the hydrogen bond distance of N+D--O with deuteron quadrupole coupling constants and using the in...Continue Reading

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