Hydration dependence of myoglobin dynamics studied with elastic neutron scattering, differential scanning calorimetry and broadband dielectric spectroscopy

In this work we present a thorough investigation of the hydration dependence of myoglobin dynamics. The study is performed on D2O-hydrated protein powders in the hydration range 0<h<0.5 (h≡gr[D2O]/gr[protein]) and in the temperature range 20-300K. The protein equilibrium fluctuations are investigated with Elastic Neutron Scattering using the spectrometer IN13 at ILL (Grenoble), while the relaxations of the protein + hydration water system are investigated with Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy; finally, Differential Scanning Calorimetry is used to obtain a thermodynamic description of the system. The effect of increasing hydration is to speed up the relaxations of the myoglobin + hydration water system and, thermodynamically, to decrease the glass transition temperature; these effects tend to saturate at h values greater than ~0.3. Moreover, the calorimetric scans put in evidence the occurrence of an endothermic peak whose onset temperature is located at ~230K independent of hydration. From the point of view of the protein equilibrium fluctuations, while the amplitude of anharmonic mean square displacements is found to increase with hydration, their onset temperature (i.e. the onset temperature of the well known “protein dynamical transition”) is hydration independent. On the basis of the above results, the relevance of protein + hydration water relaxations and of the thermodynamic state of hydration water to the onset of the protein dynamical transition is discussed.