Ion-dependent protein–surface interactions from intrinsic solvent response

The phyllosilicate mineral muscovite mica is widely used as a surface template for the patterning of macromolecules, yet a molecular understanding of its surface chemistry under varying solution conditions, required to predict and control the self-assembly of adsorbed species, is lacking. We utilize all-atom molecular dynamics simulations in conjunction with an electrostatic analysis based in local molecular field theory that affords a clean separation of long-range and short-range electrostatics. Using water polarization response as a measure of the electric fields that arise from patterned, surface-bound ions that direct the adsorption of charged macromolecules, we apply a Landau theory of forces induced by asymmetrically polarized surfaces to compute protein–surface interactions for two muscovite-binding proteins (DHR10-mica6 and C98 RhuA). Comparison of the pressure between surface and protein in high-concentration KCl and NaCl aqueous solutions reveals ion-specific differences in far-field protein–surface interactions, neatly capturing the ability of ions to modulate the surface charge of muscovite that in turn selectively attracts one binding face of each protein over all others.