Direct hydrogen bonds between sidechains are obviously important to
structural stability in proteins. From time to time I see cases of
water-mediated bonds in which a single water molecule seems to play
an important role (sometimes taking the place of a missing ligand
atom in an apo structure, for example). But what about larger chains
and networks of water? Assuming a structure is high enough in
resolution and well-ordered enough to observe such things, has anyone
systematically studied the structural importance of multiple water
interactions (I do know of a paper by Faerman and Karplus back in 94,
but perhaps there is more recent work).
Has anyone here ever seen a plausible argument that a chain of
several hydrogen-bonded waters enables residue A to interact with
residue B, some considerable distance away?
I have to say, I am skeptical of arguments based on water positions.
Thanks
Richard Gillilan
MacCHESS
