Abstract
Chemistry experiments involving biological aspects are in high demand. This laboratory exercise blends biochemistry and physical chemistry, illustrates key concepts of the virus capsid surface, and is designed for a chemistry laboratory course for students majoring in biology in college. The experimental part provides a mastery of spectrophotometric and potentiometric methods as well as numerical and graphical analysis of the data obtained. The experimental determination of pKa for neutral red, NR, and p-nitrophenol, NP, attracted to the surface of the MS2 bacteriophage results in an estimation of its local surface potential, Ψ. A distinctive feature of this lab is the twofold result: the positive Ψ value in the NP localization patch and the negative Ψ value in the NR localization patch. Discussions with students are focused on considering the surface (i) as an unstructured continuum that is characterized by physical quantities such as electrophoretic mobility and zeta potential and (ii) as a discontinuum containing certain charged groups that form discrete patches diverse in charge density and in the sign of the charges. The full-atom model of the MS2 capsid recently presented in the scientific literature provides reasonable confirmation of the experimental results obtained.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1190-1197 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Chemical Education |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 14 Feb 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 12 Mar 2024 |
Bibliographical note
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in the Journal of Chemical Education, copyright © 2024 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00948
Funding
The authors also express their gratitude to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for partial financial support in the frame of Project 0124U000968. The authors would like to thank the students of the Department of Physical Chemistry of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University for taking part in the testing of these experiments. The authors are grateful to Zita Balklava, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, U.K., for helping in the stock MS2 solutions preparation, purification, and determination of PFU concentration.