Water in biological systems is often described through hydration structure, residence time, hydrogen-bond lifetimes, and local mobility. This work introduces a minimal operational framework in which hydration lifetime is treated as a routing property rather than only as a residence property. The framework defines a dimensionless hydration routing index, Nₕydr = Nᵣoute = τᵣoute / τ₀, and distinguishes routing time from residence time. The article proposes that major and minor DNA grooves may possess distinct hydration-routing maps, that ions should be classified not as absolute stabilizers or disruptors but as Nᵣoute shifters, and that functional hydration should occupy an intermediate window between noise and rigid barrier regimes. A minimal MD-only proof-of-principle protocol is proposed using a predefined matrix of groove analysis, ion regime, and temperature. The work is intended as a Version 1. 0 theoretical and computational proof-of-principle proposal. It does not yet provide MD-derived numerical values or experimental validation. Future revisions may operationalize the MD observable, compare Nᵣoute with Nᵣes, and connect routing predictions with NMR, THz, ultrafast spectroscopy, and DNA–protein or DNA–enzyme functional data.
Balevsky et al. (Tue,) studied this question.