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Charge transfer and polarization for chloride ions bound in ClC transport proteins: natural bond orbital and energy decomposition analyses.

ClC transport proteins show a distinct "broken-helix" architecture, in which certain α-helices are oriented with their N-terminal ends pointed toward the binding sites where the chloride ions are held extensively by the backbone amide nitrogen atoms from the helices. To understand the effectiveness of such binding structures, we carried out natural bond orbital analysis and energy decomposition analysis employing truncated active-site model systems for the bound chloride ions along the translocation pore of the EcClC proteins. Our results indicated that the chloride ions are stabilized in such a binding environment by electrostatic, polarization, and charge-transfer interactions with the backbone and a few side chains. Up to ~25% of the formal charges of the chloride ions were found smeared out to the surroundings primarily via charge transfer from the chloride's lone pair n(Cl) orbitals to the protein's antibonding σ*(N-H) or σ*(O-H) orbitals; those σ* orbitals are localized at the polar N-H and O-H bonds in the chloride's first solvation shells formed by the backbone amide groups and the side chains of residues Ser107, Arg147, Glu148, and Tyr445. Polarizations by the chloride ions were dominated by the redistribution of charge densities among the π orbitals and lone pair orbitals of the protein atoms, in particular the atoms of the backbone peptide links and of the side chains of Arg147, Glu148, and Tyr445. The substantial amounts of electron density involved in charge transfer and in polarization were consistent with the large energetic contributions by the two processes revealed by the energy decomposition analysis. The significant polarization and charge-transfer effects may have impacts on the mechanisms and dynamics of the chloride transport by the ClC proteins.