Hydrophobic hydrophilic phenomena in biochemical processes Original Research Article

The evolution of concepts developed in the study of the hydrophobic affect is surveyed, within the more general context of solvent-induced effects. A systematic analysis of the solvent-induced contribution to the driving force for the process of protein folding has led to two important modifications in our understanding of these effects. First, the conventional concepts of hydrophobic solvation and hydrophobic interactions had to be replaced by their respective conditional effects. Second, each of the hydrophobic effects has also a corresponding hydrophilic counterpart. Some of the latter effects could contribute significantly to the total driving force for the process of protein folding, and perhaps even dominate the driving force for biochemical processes.