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From: Khaled Barakat (kbarakat_at_phys.ualberta.ca)
Date: Fri Jan 22 2010 - 20:22:25 CST

Hello,

I am trying to calculate the solvent accessible/excluded surface area (SASA and SESA) using MSMS for different probe radii. I noticed that the SASA increases
with increasing the probe radius, while the SESA decreases. My question is: Does these results make sense?! I was expecting opposite results ( i.e. the SASA decreases with increasing the probe radius, because a larger solvent molecule will not be able to touch the surface of the protein as much as a smaller solvent
molecule).

I will appreciate if someone can help me understand these results.

Thanks in advance.
Khaled

My numbers are:

Radius SASA SESA
2.5 7869.7254 5957.5241
2.8 7936.7443 5832.3499
3.0 7990.4262 5782.2308
4.25 8535.3977 5491.1256