Preferential solvation: dividing surface vs excess numbers.

How do osmolytes affect the conformation and configuration of supramolecular assembly, such as ion channel opening and actin polymerization? The key to the answer lies in the excess solvation numbers of water and osmolyte molecules; these numbers are determinable solely from experimental data, as guaranteed by the phase rule, as we show through the exact solution theory of Kirkwood and Buff (KB). The osmotic stress technique (OST), in contrast, purposes to yield alternative hydration numbers through the use of the dividing surface borrowed from the adsorption theory. However, we show (i) OST is equivalent, when it becomes exact, to the crowding effect in which the osmolyte exclusion dominates over hydration; (ii) crowding is not the universal driving force of the osmolyte effect (e.g., actin polymerization); (iii) the dividing surface for solvation is useful only for crowding, unlike in the adsorption theory which necessitates its use due to the phase rule. KB thus clarifies the true meaning and limitations of the older perspectives on preferential solvation (such as solvent binding models, crowding, and OST), and enables excess number determination without any further assumptions.