The stereochemistry of the water molecules in the hydrates of small biological molecules.

An examination of the stereochemistry of the water molecules in the hydrates of amino acids and peptides, carbohydrates, purines and pyrimidines, and nucleosides and nucleotides, reveals a variety of hydrogen-bonded configurations within a radius of 3.0 A from the water oxygen atom. Water molecules which accept one hydrogen bond are more common than those that accept two, by a factor of 1.4. There are nine examples where the water is not a hydrogen-bond acceptor, but only one where it does not donate two hydrogen bonds. Of the 621 OWH...A bonds examined, 15% were three centered and 2% were four centered or three-center bifurcated. The amino-acid and peptide hydrates displayed the greatest variety with 15 different hydrogen-bond configurations. The coordination of the donor and acceptor atoms within 3.0 A of the water oxygen atom ranged from two to seven.