WSN: zwitterions in membrane

• To: Water Science Network <water@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
• Subject: WSN: zwitterions in membrane
• From: Water Science Network Administrator <wsn-adm@mmlds1.pha.unc.edu>
• Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 15:13:50 -0500 (EST)

       Could you shed light (and references) on the following problem?
       A number of us are debating the properties of a zwitterion
       species (electrically neutral but two charges) versus a singly
       charged species. The question is whether a zwitterion species is
       more or less soluble in a cell membrane than a very close
       structural analog bearing a single charge. The zwitterion has
       the advantage of being electrically neutral.  The disadvantage
       is that it may actually have a much larger sphere of hydration
       and therefore require a larger decrease in entropy in order to
       partition into the hydrophobic cell membrane. The assumption
       here is that the zwitterion charges are sufficiently separated
       so that they cannot interact. The case of interacting charges is
       also an interesting one.

	I would be happy to summarize for the net if the response is
	good enough and there is interest in the answers. Please direct
	responses to me initially to avoid too much network traffic.

Thanks in advance,

Adi M Treasurywala,Sterling Winthrop Inc,1250 South Collegeville Road,
PO Box 5000, Collegeville, PA 19426-0900,Voice (215)983-6610 FAX
(215)983-5559, INTERNET adit@kodak.com

• Prev: Re: WSN: effective hydrophobic forces (fwd)
• Next: structure, hydrophobicity, and textbooks (fwd)
• Index: Mail Index
• Thread: Mail Thread Index