Novel 2D and 3D multiple-quantum bi-directional HCNCH experiments for the correlation of ribose and base protons/carbons in 13C/15N labeled RNA

Multiple-quantum 2D and 3D bi-directional HCNCH experiments are presented for the correlation of base and ribose protons/carbons in ¹³C/¹⁵N labeled HIV-1 TAR RNA. In both 2D and 3D experiments, the magnetization of H1 is transferred to H6/H8 and H1 through H1-C1-N1/9-C6/8-H6/8 and H1-C1-N1/9-C1-H1 pathways, and the magnetization of H6/8 is transferred to H1 and H6/8 through H6/8-C6/8-N1/9-C1-H1 and H6/8-C6/8-N1/9-C6/8-H6/8 pathways. Chemical shifts of four different nuclei (H1, C1, C6/8 and H6/8) are sampled in the 2D experiment. The correlation of base and ribose protons/carbons is established by the rectangular arrangement of crossover and out-and-back peaks in the proton/carbon correlated spectrum. The rectangular connections can be further resolved using the nitrogen dimension in a ¹H/¹³C/¹⁵N 3D experiment. Furthermore, by taking advantage of the well separated chemical shifts of N1 (pyrimidine) and N9 (purine), the 2D spectrum can be simplified into two sub-spectra based on their base type. Both experiments were tested on a ¹³C/¹⁵N labeled 27-mer HIV-1 TAR RNA containing a UUCG hairpin loop.