Density Functional Theory Study of Conformation-Dependent Properties of Neutral and Radical Cationic L-Tyrosine and L-Tryptophan

Conformation-dependent properties of L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan in neutral and radical cations were studied by using the density functional theory (DFT) with a new density functional M05-2X. The results are compared with those obtained by using the conventional DFT (B3LYP). Results obtained by both types of DFT were in qualitative accord, including the existence of two conformational subgroups and their subgroup-dependent adiabatic ionization energy and hydrogen bonding. On the other hand, quantitative differences were found between the two DFT methods as well: the M05-2X method successfully reproduced experimental adiabatic ionization energy, whereas the B3LYP functional consistently yielded significantly lower values by 0.2-0.3 eV. More importantly, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis for cationic conformers showed that all conformers of L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan undergo charge localization upon ionization regardless of the presence of intramolecular hydrogen bonding, unlike the case of L-phenylalanine that was treated earlier by other studies. Different degrees of charge localization among all three aromatic amino acids are explained by employing a simple model in which the aromatic amino acid is assumed to consist of two submoieties of distinct cationic core: the backbone and aromatic side chain. The difference in adiabatic ionization energy between these two submoieties is found to govern the degree of charge localization.