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Wild-type bacteriophage T4 lysozyme contains a hydrophobic cavity with binding properties that have been extensively studied by X-ray crystallography and NMR. In the present study, the monitoring of ¹H chemical shift variations under xenon pressure enables the determination of the noble gas binding constant (K = 60.2 M1-). Although the interaction site is highly localized, dipolar cross-relaxation effects between laser-polarized xenon and nearby protons (SPINOE) are rather poor. This is explained by the high value of the xenon-proton dipolar correlation time (0.8 ns), much longer than the previously reported values for xenon in medium-size proteins. This indicates that xenon is highly localized within the protein cavity, as confirmed by the large chemical shift difference between free and bound xenon. The exploitation of the xenon line width variation vs xenon pressure and protein concentration allows the extraction of the exchange correlation time between free and bound xenon. Comparison to the exchange experienced by protein protons indicates that the exchange between the open and closed conformations of T4 lysozyme is not required for xenon binding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]