Conformational changes of aspartate induced by high salt concentrations

Abstract

The conformational changes of aspartate induced by increasing ionic strength were investigated by means of NMR spectroscopy. The effects of Li, Na, K and Cs chlorides in basic solutions show a relative stabilization of the two conformers with gauche carboxylates at the expense of the anti conformer. A significant quantitative difference was found between Na⁺ and K⁺. The changes observed in neutral solutions, although larger than those in basic solutions, are dominated by the zwitterion interaction.