p-p Stacking Interactions in Water
Marcey L. Waters
Department of Chemistry
UNC Chapel Hill
The role of aromatic interactions in proteins has gained considerable attention since the seminal paper by Burley and Petsko in 1986. Despite both theoretical and experimental work on these aromatic interactions, fundamental questions regarding the nature and magnitude of the interaction and its contribution to protein structure and reactivity still exist.
Electrostatic effects, the hydrophobic effect, surface area, and charge transfer have all been proposed to influence the strength of p-p_stacking interactions, but to what extent the interaction depends on each of these factors is not known. We are investigating the nature of the p-p_stacking interaction and its role in protein folding and recognition. Recent results in a model system will be discussed.