Hydration Properties of a Protein at Normal and High Pressures: Physics of Pressure Denaturation

Abstract

We review our recently published article and related works on pressure denaturation of a protein. The protein structure and its fluctuation are considered at the atomic level and a molecular model is employed for water. The protein intramolecular energy and entropy, hydration free energy (HFE), and a variety of physically insightful constituents of the HFE are calculated using the state-of-the-art methods based on statistical mechanics. By examining the signs and relative magnitudes of the changes in these thermodynamic quantities upon denaturation, we discuss the mechanism of pressure denaturation and structural characteristics of the denatured state.