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In memory of the 85th birthday of Yakov S. Lebedev (Moscow), who died in 1996, we start this Review on soft-glass matrix effects in donor–acceptor complexes with an appreciation of his pioneering work on high-field EPR spectroscopy on tribochemically generated donor–acceptor complexes. The mechanochemical activation of polycrystalline mixtures of porphyrins (and other donors) and quinone acceptors was found to produce large concentrations of triplet donor molecules and donor–acceptor radical pairs with unusual stability. The Review is continued with reporting on W-band high-field EPR and fast-laser studies on disaccharide matrix effects on structure and dynamics of donor–acceptor protein complexes related to photosynthesis, including the non-oxygenic bacterial reaction center (RC) and the oxygenic RCs Photosystem I (PS I) and Photosystem II (PS II, preliminary results). Some organisms can survive complete dehydration and high temperatures by adopting an anhydrobiotic state in which the intracellular medium contains large amounts of disaccharides, in particular trehalose and sucrose. Trehalose is most effective in protecting biostructures, both in vivo and in vitro. To clarify the molecular mechanisms of disaccharide bioprotection, structure and dynamics of sucrose and trehalose matrices at different controlled hydration levels were probed by perdeuterated nitroxide spin labels and native cofactor intermediates in their charge-separated states. Trehalose forms a homogeneous amorphous phase in which the hosted molecules are uniformly distributed. Notably, their rotational mobility at room temperature is dramatically impaired by thetrehalose H-bonding network confinement to an extent that in normal protein–matrix systems is only observed at low temperatures around 150K. From the experimental results, formation of an extended H-bonding network of trehalose with protein molecules is inferred, involving both bulk and local water molecules. The H-bond network extends homogeneously over the whole matrix integrating and immobilizing the hosted protein. Taken together, these observations suggest that in photosystems, such as bacterial RCs and PS I complexes, of different size and complexity regarding subunit composition and oligomeric organization, the molecular configuration of the cofactors involved in the primary processes of charge separation is not significantly distorted by incorporation into trehalose glass, even under extensive dehydration. By means of pulsed W-band high-field multiresonance EPR spectroscopies, such as ELDOR-detected NMR and ENDOR, in conjunction with using isotope labeled water (D2O and H217O), the biologically important issue of sensing and quantification of local water in proteins is addressed. The bacterial RC embedded into the trehalose glass matrix is used as model system. The two native radical cofactor ions of the primary electron donor and acceptor as well as an artificial nitroxide spin label site-specifically attached to the protein surface are studied in the experiments. The three paramagnetic reporter groups probe distinctly different local environments. They sense water molecules via their magnetic hyperfine and quadrupole interactions with either deuterons or 17O nuclei. It is shown that by using oxygen-17 labeled water, quantitative conclusions can be drawn differentiating between local and bulk water. It is concluded that dry trehalose operates as anhydrobiotic protein stabilizer by means of selective changes in the first solvation shell of the protein upon trehalose–matrix dehydration with subsequent changes in the hydrogen-bonding network. Such changes usually have an impact on the global function of a biological system. Finally, preliminary results of optical and W-band EPR experiments on the extremolytes ectoine and its derivative hydroxyectoine are reported; these compounds appear to share several stress-protecting properties with trehalose in terms of stabilizing protein matrices. For instance, they display remarkable stabilizing capabilities towards sensitive proteins and enzymes with respect to freeze-thawing, heat-treatment, and freeze-drying procedures. Moreover, hydroxyectoine is a good glass-forming compound and exhibits a remarkable bioprotective effect against desiccation and heat denaturation of functional protein complexes.

The kinetics of flash-induced re-reduction of the Photosystem II (PS II) primary electron donor P680 was studied in solution and in trehalose glassy matrices at different relative humidity. In solution, and in the re-dissolved glass, kinetics were dominated by two fast components with lifetimes in the range of 2–7 μs, which accounted for >85% of the decay. These components were ascribed to the direct electron transfer from the redox-active tyrosine YZ to P680 +. The minor slower components were due to charge recombination between the primary plastoquinone acceptor QA − and P680 +. Incorporation of the PS II complex into the trehalose glassy matrix and its successive dehydration caused a progressive increase in the lifetime of all kinetic phases, accompanied by an increase of the amplitudes of the slower phases at the expense of the faster phases. At 63% relative humidity the fast components contribution dropped to ~50%. A further dehydration of the trehalose glass did not change the lifetimes and contribution of the kinetic components. This effect was ascribed to the decrease of conformational mobility of the protein domain between YZ and P680, which resulted in the inhibition of YZ → P680 + electron transfer in about half of the PS II population, wherein the recombination between QA − and P680 + occurred. The data indicate that PS II binds a larger number of water molecules as compared to PS I complexes. We conclude that our data disprove the “water replacement” hypothesis of trehalose matrix biopreservation.

Disaccharide glasses are increasingly used to immobilize proteins at room temperature for structural/functional studies and long-term preservation. To unravel the molecular basis of protein immobilization, we studied the effect of sugar/protein concentration ratios in trehalose or sucrose matrixes, in which the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center (RC) was embedded as a model protein. The structural, dynamical, and H-bonding characteristics of the sugar-protein systems were probed by high-field W-band EPR of a matrix-dissolved nitroxide radical. We discovered that RC immobilization and thermal stabilization, being independent of the protein concentration in trehalose, occur in sucrose only at sufficiently low sugar/protein ratios. EPR reveals that only under such conditions does sucrose form a microscopically homogeneous matrix that immobilizes, via H-bonds, the nitroxide probe. We conclude that the protein immobilization capability depends critically on the propensity of the glass-forming sugar to create intermolecular H-bond networks, thus establishing long-range, homogeneous connectivity within the matrix.

The structural and dynamical interaction of proteins with their microenvironment in disordered matrices plays a decisive role for their function; EPR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for shading light onto the molecular mechanisms of this protein–matrix interplay. To clarify the molecular mechanisms of disaccharide bioprotection, we studied the structure and dynamics of spin-labeled systems and photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs) in sucrose and trehalose matrices at different hydration levels by means of cw and pulse high-field 95 GHz (W-band) EPR as well as by FTIR. In this minireview, we summarize and discuss EPR and FTIR experiments showing that the anhydrobiotic state of the RC–trehalose system (1) is not the result of matrix-induced changes of the local structure of the charge-separated radical-pair cofactors, $${\text{P}}_{865}^{ \cdot + }$$ and $${\text{Q}}_{\text{A}}^{ \cdot - }$$ , and (2) is not the result of changes of local dynamics and local hydrogen bonding of QA in its binding pocket. Rather, the extreme impairment of RC dynamics caused by incorporation into the dehydrated trehalose matrix, which also protects it against thermal denaturation, originates in the high rigidity, already at room temperature, of the dry trehalose glass matrix coating the RC protein surface. This surface hydrogen-bonding scaffold shifts the correlation time of thermal conformational fluctuations into the non-biological time domain. Another intriguing aspect of disaccharide bioprotection is the superior efficiency of trehalose versus sucrose matrices in stabilizing the anhydrobiotic state of proteins. To clarify the molecular basis of this specificity, glassy trehalose–water and sucrose–water binary systems, incorporating a nitroxide radical as spin probe, have been studied by high-field W-band EPR spectroscopy at different water contents. Analysis of the EPR spectra revealed a different structural and dynamical organization in the sucrose and trehalose matrix, only the trehalose being homogeneous in terms of residual water and nitroxide distribution.

The coupling between electron transfer and protein dynamics has been investigated in reaction centers (RCs) from the wild type (wt) and the carotenoid-less strain R26 of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Recombination kinetics between the primary photoreduced quinone acceptor (QA-) and photoxidized donor (P+) have been analyzed at room temperature in RCs incorporated into glassy trehalose matrices of different water/sugar ratios. As previously found in R26 RCs, also in the wt RC, upon matrix dehydration, P+QA- recombination accelerates and becomes broadly distributed, reflecting the inhibition of protein relaxation from the dark-adapted to the light-adapted conformation and the hindrance of interconversion between conformational substates. While in wet trehalose matrices (down to approximately one water per trehalose molecule) P+QA- recombination kinetics are essentially coincident in wt and R26 RCs, more extensive dehydration leads to two-times faster and more distributed kinetics in the carotenoid-containing RC, indicating a stronger inhibition of the internal protein dynamics in the wt RC. Coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations performed on the two RC structures reveal a markedly larger flexibility of the R26 RC, showing that a rigid core of residues, close to the quinone acceptors, is specifically softened in the absence of the carotenoid. These experimental and computational results concur to indicate that removal of the carotenoid molecule has long-range effects on protein dynamics and that the structural/dynamical coupling between the protein and the glassy matrix depends strongly upon the local mechanical properties of the protein interior. The data also suggest that the conformational change stabilizing P+QA- is localized around the QA binding pocket.

Matrix effects on long-range electron transfer were studied in cyanobacterial Photosystem I (PS I) complexes, embedded into trehalose glasses at different hydration levels. W-band EPR studies demonstrated, via nitroxide spin probes, structural homogeneity of the dry PS I-trehalose matrix and no alteration of cofactors' distance and relative orientation under temperature and matrix variation. In dry trehalose glasses at room temperature (RT), PS I was stable for months. Flash-induced charge recombination kinetics were examined by high-field time-resolved EPR and optical spectroscopies. The kinetics in hydrated PS I-trehalose glasses mostly reflected the reduction of the photooxidized primary donor P700•+ by the reduced terminal iron-sulfur clusters. Upon dehydration, the P700•+ decay accelerated and became more distributed. Continuous distributions of lifetimes τ were extracted from the kinetics by two numerical approaches: a maximum entropy method (MemExp program) and a constrained regularization method (CONTIN program). Both analyses revealed that upon dehydration the contribution of the two slowest components (lifetimes τ ~ 300 ms and ~ 60 ms), attributed to P700•+[FA/FB] − recombination, decreased in parallel with the increase of the fastest component (τ ~ 150 μs), and of additional distributed phases with intermediate lifetimes. Dehydration at RT mimicked the effects of freezing water-glycerol PS I systems, suggesting an impairment of PS I protein dynamics in the dry trehalose glass. Similar effects were observed previously in bacterial reaction centers. The work presented for PS I provides new insights into the crucial issue of protein-matrix interactions for protein functionality as controlled by hydrogen-bond networks of the hydration shell.

Conformational protein dynamics is known to be hampered in amorphous matrixes upon dehydration, both in the absence and in the presence of glass forming disaccharides, like trehalose, resulting in enhanced protein thermal stability. To shed light on such matrix effects, we have compared the retardation of protein dynamics in photo-synthetic bacterial reaction centers (RC) dehydrated at controlled relative humidity in the absence (RC films) or in the presence of trehalose (RC-trehalose glasses). Small scale RC dynamics, associated with the relaxation from the dark-adapted to the light-adapted conformation, have been probed up to the second time scale by analyzing the kinetics of electron transfer from the photoreduced quinone acceptor (Q(A)(-)) to the photoxidized primary donor (P+) as a function of the duration of photoexcitation from 7 ns (laser pulse) to 20 s. A more severe inhibition of dynamics is found in RC trehalose glasses than in RC films: only in the latter system does a complete relaxation to the light-adapted conformation occur even at extreme dehydration, although strongly retarded. To gain insight into the large scale RC dynamics up to the time scale of days, the kinetics of thermal denaturation have been studied at 44 degrees C by spectral analysis of the Q(x) and Q(y) bands of the RC bacteriochlorin cofactors, as a function of the sugar/protein molar ratio, m, varied between 0 and 10(4). Upon increasing m, denaturation is slowed progressively, and above m similar to 500 the RC is stable at least for several days. The stronger retardation of RC relaxation and dynamics induced by trehalose is discussed in the light of a recent molecular dynamics simulation study performed in matrixes of the model protein lysozyme with and without trehalose. We suggest that the efficiency of trehalose in retarding RC dynamics and preventing thermal denaturation stems mainly from its propensity to form and stabilize extended networks of hydrogen bonds involving sugar, residual water, and surface residues of the RC complex and from its ability of reducing the free volume fraction of protein alone matrixes.

Some organisms can survive complete dehydration and high temperatures by adopting an anhydrobiotic state in which the intracellular medium contains large amounts of disaccharides, particularly trehalose and sucrose. Trehalose is most effective also in protecting isolated in vitro biostructures. In an attempt to clarify the molecular mechanisms of disaccharide bioprotection, we compared the structure and dynamics of sucrose and trehalose matrices at different hydration levels by means of high-field W-band EPR and FTIR spectroscopy. The hydration state of the samples was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and the structural organization was probed by EPR using a nitroxide radical dissolved in the respective matrices. Analysis of the EPR spectra showed that the structure and dynamics of the dehydrated matrices as well as their evolution upon re-hydration differ substantially between trehalose and sucrose. The dehydrated trehalose matrix is homogeneous in terms of distribution of the residual water and spin-probe molecules. In contrast, dehydrated sucrose forms a heterogeneous matrix. It is comprised of sucrose polycrystalline clusters and several bulk water domains. The amorphous form was found only in 30% (volume) of the sucrose matrix. Re-hydration leads to a structural homogenization of the sucrose matrix, whilst in the trehalose matrix several domains develop differing in the local water/radical content and radical mobility. The molecular model of the matrices provides an explanation for the different protein–matrix dynamical coupling observed in dried ternary sucrose and trehalose matrices, and accounts for the superior efficacy of trehalose as a bioprotectant. Furthermore, for bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers it is shown that at low water content the protein–matrix coupling is modulated by the sugar/protein molar ratio in sucrose matrices only. This effect is suggested to be related to the preference for sucrose, rather than trehalose, as a bioprotective disaccharide in some anhydrobiotic organisms.

An increasing number of publications report on the efficacy of trehalose in preserving organisms, cells, and macromolecules from adverse environmental conditions such as extreme temperatures and dryness. Although the mechanism by which this disaccharide exerts its protection is still debated, the implementation of trehalose as stabilizer is becoming a praxis in several preparative protocols from the pharmaceutical industry. We tested the ability of trehalose in protecting R-Phycoerythrin (R-PE), a pigment-protein complex widely used as fluorescent marker, from thermal denaturation. Once embedded into a dried trehalose matrix, R-PE retains its optical absorption-emission characteristics even when exposed to 70°C for h or when subjected to freeze-drying. We subsequently examined the protection exerted by trehalose on freeze-dried antihuman CD8-RPE (CD8-RPE) conjugated antibodies. Flow cytometric analysis showed that colyophilized trehalose-CD8-RPE preparations can be exposed for 4 weeks at 45°C without significant loss of functionality. Remarkably, even following 4 weeks incubation at 70°C, the preparations are still able to specifically recognize CD8(+) lymphocyte populations. These results show that colyophilization with trehalose makes possible the preparation of antibody-based diagnostic kits which can withstand breaks in the "cold chain" distribution, particularly suited for use in less-developed countries of the tropical areas.

The coupling between electron transfer (ET) and the conformational dynamics of the cofactor−protein complex in photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs) from Rhodobacter sphaeroides in water/glycerol solutions or embedded in dehydrated poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) films or trehalose glasses is reported. Matrix effects were studied by time-resolved 95 GHz high-field electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy at room (290 K) and low (150 K) temperature. ET from the photoreduced quinone acceptor (QA•−) to the photo-oxidized donor (P865•+) is strongly matrix-dependent at room temperature: In the trehalose glasses, the recombination kinetics of P865•+QA•−, probed by EPR and optical spectroscopies, is faster and broadly distributed as compared to that of RCs in solution, reflecting the inhibition of the RC relaxation from the dark- to the light-adapted conformational substate and the hindrance of substate interconversion. Similarly accelerated kinetics was observed also in PVA at a water-to-RC molar ratio 10-fold lower than in trehalose. Despite the matrix dependence of the ET kinetics, continuous-wave (cw) EPR and electron spin echo (ESE) analyses of the photogenerated P865•+ and QA•− radical ions and P865•+QA•− radical pairs do not reveal significant matrix effects, at either 290 or 150 K, indicating no change in the molecular radical-pair configuration of the P865•+ and QA•− cofactors. Furthermore, the field dependences of the transverse relaxation times T2 of QA•− essentially coincide in trehalose and PVA at 290 K. T2 is similar in these two matrixes and in the glycerol/water system at 150 K, implying that the librational dynamics of QA•− are also unaffected by the matrix. We infer that the relative geometry of the primary donor and acceptor, as well as the local dynamics and hydrogen bonding of QA in its binding pocket, are not involved in the stabilization of P865•+QA•−. We suggest that the RC relaxation occurs rather by changes throughout the protein/solvent system. The control of the RC dynamics and ET by the environment is discussed, particularly with respect to the extraordinary efficacy of trehalose matrixes in restricting the RC motional degrees of freedom at elevated temperatures.

The interplay between protein dynamics and electron transfer (ET) has been extensively investigated in the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center (RC) from Rhodobacter sphaeroides by hampering RC internal motions at low temperatures [1]. Alternatively, the RC dynamics can be inhibited at room temperature by incorporating the RC into dehydrated trehalose matrices [2]. In the glasses the recombination kinetics of the charge separated state P+QA are accelerated and distributed in rate as compared to solution, mimicking at room temperature the effects observed at 10 K in water-glycerol. This is taken to indicate inhibition of the RC relaxation from the dark- to the light-adapted conformation, as well as of the RC thermal fluctuations [1,2]. We proposed that the inhibition is mediated by residual water molecules of the RC hydration shell which bridge protein surface groups with trehalose molecules of the matrix by forming a network of multiple hydrogen bonds [3]. Consistently, similar effects have been observed also in RC films dehydrated in the absence of sugar [4]. However, striking differences are found between RC-trehalose glasses and RC-films: (a) The thermal stability of the RC is tremendously enhanced in the trehalose matrix. (b) In RC-trehalose matrices, the P+QA recombination after a few seconds of continuous photoexcitation is only partially decelerated as compared to the one recorded after a laser flash, whereas in dried RC films a comparable period of continuous illumination leads to a total recovery of the kinetics observed in the hydrated system. These data indicate that in films the protein dynamics can be easily regained, in contrast to trehalose glasses, which reveal much stronger structural constraints. We are extending these studies to a series of RC mutants characterized by a widely altered P+/P midpoint potential relative to wild-type [5]. In these mutants, the acceleration of P+QA recombination induced by cooling to 10 K in the dark decreased with increasing midpoint potential [6]. Interestingly, incorporation into dehydrated trehalose matrices causes instead acceleration of the kinetics by the same factor for all P+/P midpoint potential values.