161
Chapter 6
Electronic Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy
in Structural Analysis of Biomolecular Systems
Magdalena Pecul and Wojciech Dzwolak
m. Pecul () · W. dzwolak
Faculty of Chemistry, university of Warsaw, Pasteura 1,
02-093, Warszawa, Poland
e-mail: mpecul@chem.uw.edu.pl
Abstract In this chapter, the use of electronic circular dichroism (Cd) in structural analysis of biological molecular systems is discussed. the quantum chemical theory of the phenomenon is briefly presented, and the applications of the Cd
spectroscopy in determination of spatial structure of proteins and nucleic acids,
and of absolute configuration of small molecules of pharmacological significance
are summarized. Some attention is also paid to the emerging technique related to
Cd—circularly polarized luminscence (CPL).
(Dated: 1 February 2013)
Keywords Electronic circular dichroism • Circularly polarized luminscence
• Protein structure • Nucleic acid structure • Induced chirality
6.1 Introduction
Since the majority of building blocks of living matter are chiral, chiroptical methods
have a special significance in structural analysis of compounds of biochemical relevance. Electronic circular dichroism (ECd, usually abbreviated in the literature to
Cd, after circular dichroism) is the most widespread among them, although vibrational chiroptical spectroscopic methods: vibrational circular dichroism and Raman
optical activity are being developed very rapidly nowadays.
dependence of the optical rotation on the incident light wavelength was discovered already in 1817 by Biot [1], but this knowledge was not utilized until midXX century, when optical rotatory dispersion (oRd) measurements started to be
routinely conducted [2, 3]. Circular dichroism spectroscopy has a similar history:
the phenomenon was first observed in 1847 [4] and the connection between oRd
and Cd was realized by Cotton half a century later [5], but it became a widespread
spectroscopic technique only about 1960 [3]. (Early days of oRd and Cd have
been reviewed recently by Laur [6].) Since the 1960s, Cd has not only replaced
optical rotatory dispersion (oRd) as the main biophysical tool to probe static conformations of biopolymers in solution, but it has also successfully evolved into an
m. Baranska (ed.), Optical Spectroscopy and Computational Methods in Biology and
Medicine, Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics 14,
doI 10.1007/978-94-007-7832-0_6, © Springer Science+Business media dordrecht 2014
Chapter 6
Electronic Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy
in Structural Analysis of Biomolecular Systems
Magdalena Pecul and Wojciech Dzwolak
m. Pecul () · W. dzwolak
Faculty of Chemistry, university of Warsaw, Pasteura 1,
02-093, Warszawa, Poland
e-mail: mpecul@chem.uw.edu.pl
Abstract In this chapter, the use of electronic circular dichroism (Cd) in structural analysis of biological molecular systems is discussed. the quantum chemical theory of the phenomenon is briefly presented, and the applications of the Cd
spectroscopy in determination of spatial structure of proteins and nucleic acids,
and of absolute configuration of small molecules of pharmacological significance
are summarized. Some attention is also paid to the emerging technique related to
Cd—circularly polarized luminscence (CPL).
(Dated: 1 February 2013)
Keywords Electronic circular dichroism • Circularly polarized luminscence
• Protein structure • Nucleic acid structure • Induced chirality
6.1 Introduction
Since the majority of building blocks of living matter are chiral, chiroptical methods
have a special significance in structural analysis of compounds of biochemical relevance. Electronic circular dichroism (ECd, usually abbreviated in the literature to
Cd, after circular dichroism) is the most widespread among them, although vibrational chiroptical spectroscopic methods: vibrational circular dichroism and Raman
optical activity are being developed very rapidly nowadays.
dependence of the optical rotation on the incident light wavelength was discovered already in 1817 by Biot [1], but this knowledge was not utilized until midXX century, when optical rotatory dispersion (oRd) measurements started to be
routinely conducted [2, 3]. Circular dichroism spectroscopy has a similar history:
the phenomenon was first observed in 1847 [4] and the connection between oRd
and Cd was realized by Cotton half a century later [5], but it became a widespread
spectroscopic technique only about 1960 [3]. (Early days of oRd and Cd have
been reviewed recently by Laur [6].) Since the 1960s, Cd has not only replaced
optical rotatory dispersion (oRd) as the main biophysical tool to probe static conformations of biopolymers in solution, but it has also successfully evolved into an
m. Baranska (ed.), Optical Spectroscopy and Computational Methods in Biology and
Medicine, Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics 14,
doI 10.1007/978-94-007-7832-0_6, © Springer Science+Business media dordrecht 2014