Picosecond orientational dynamics of water in living cells

Martijn Tros, Linli Zheng, Johannes Hunger (), Mischa Bonn, Daniel Bonn, Gertien J. Smits () and Sander Woutersen ()
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Martijn Tros: University of Amsterdam
Linli Zheng: University of Amsterdam
Johannes Hunger: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Department of Molecular spectroscopy
Mischa Bonn: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Department of Molecular spectroscopy
Daniel Bonn: University of Amsterdam
Gertien J. Smits: University of Amsterdam
Sander Woutersen: University of Amsterdam

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Cells are extremely crowded, and a central question in biology is how this affects the intracellular water. Here, we use ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy and dielectric-relaxation spectroscopy to observe the random orientational motion of water molecules inside living cells of three prototypical organisms: Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast), and spores of Bacillus subtilis. In all three organisms, most of the intracellular water exhibits the same random orientational motion as neat water (characteristic time constants ~9 and ~2 ps for the first-order and second-order orientational correlation functions), whereas a smaller fraction exhibits slower orientational dynamics. The fraction of slow intracellular water varies between organisms, ranging from ~20% in E. coli to ~45% in B. subtilis spores. Comparison with the water dynamics observed in solutions mimicking the chemical composition of (parts of) the cytosol shows that the slow water is bound mostly to proteins, and to a lesser extent to other biomolecules and ions.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00858-0

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