Temperature and length scale dependence of hydrophobic effects and their possible implications for protein folding

The Lum-Chandler-Weeks theory of hydrophobicity [Lum, K., Chandler, D. & We eks. J. D. (1999) J. Phys. Chem. 103, 4570-4577] is applied to treat the te mperature dependence of hydrophobic solvation in water. The application ill ustrates how the temperature dependence for hydrophobic surfaces extending less than 1 nm differs significantly from that for surfaces extending more than 1 nm. The latter is the result of water depletion, a collective effect , that appears at length scales of 1 nm and larger. Because of the contrast ing behaviors at small and large length scales, hydrophobicity by itself ca n explain the variable behavior of entropies of protein folding.