Speeding up direct <Superscript>15</Superscript>N detection: hCaN 2D NMR experiment

Experiments detecting low gyromagnetic nuclei have recently been proposed to utilize the relatively slow relaxation properties of these nuclei in comparison to ¹H. Here we present a new type of ¹⁵N direct-detection experiment. Like the previously proposed CaN experiment (Takeuchi et al. in J Biomol NMR 47:271–282, 2010), the hCaN experiment described here sequentially connects amide ¹⁵N resonances, but utilizes the initial high polarization and the faster recovery of the ¹H nucleus to shorten the recycling delay. This allows recording 2D ¹⁵N-detected NMR experiments on proteins within a few hours, while still obtaining superior resolution for ¹³C and ¹⁵N, establishing sequential assignments through prolines, and at conditions where amide protons exchange rapidly. The experiments are demonstrated on various biomolecules, including the small globular protein GB1, the 22 kDa HEAT2 domain of eIF4G, and an unstructured polypeptide fragment of NFAT1, which contains many SerPro sequence repeats.     

TEDOR with adiabatic inversion pulses: Resonance assignments of <Superscript>13</Superscript>C/<Superscript>15</Superscript>N labelled RNAs

We have examined via numerical simulations the performance characteristics of different 15N RF pulse schemes employed in the transferred echo double resonance (TEDOR) experimental protocol for generating 13C-15N dipolar chemical shift correlation spectra of isotopically labelled biological systems at moderate MAS frequencies (omega(r) approximately 10 kHz). With an 15N field strength of approximately 30-35 kHz that is typically available in 5 mm triple resonance MAS NMR probes, it is shown that a robust TEDOR sequence with significant tolerance to experimental imperfections sa as H1 inhomogeneity and resonance offsets can be effectively implemented using adiabatic heteronuclear dipolar recoupling pulse schemes. TEDOR-based 15N-13C and 15N-13C-13C chemical shift correlation experiments were carried out for obtaining 13C and 15N resonance assignments of an RNA composed of 97 (CUG) repeats which has been implicated in the neuromuscular disease myotonic dystrophy.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C and <Superscript>15</Superscript>N resonance assignment of human guanylate kinase

Human guanylate kinase (hGMPK) is a critical enzyme that, in addition to phosphorylating its physiological substrate (d)GMP, catalyzes the second phosphorylation step in the conversion of anti-viral and anti-cancer nucleoside analogs to their corresponding active nucleoside analog triphosphates. Until now, a high-resolution structure of hGMPK is unavailable and thus, we studied free hGMPK by NMR and assigned the chemical shift resonances of backbone and side chain ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁵N nuclei as a first step towards the enzyme’s structural and mechanistic analysis with atomic resolution.     

Direct amide <Superscript>15</Superscript>N to <Superscript>13</Superscript>C transfers for solid-state assignment experiments in deuterated proteins

The assignment of protein backbone and side-chain NMR chemical shifts is the first step towards the characterization of protein structure. The recent introduction of proton detection in combination with fast MAS has opened up novel opportunities for assignment experiments. However, typical 3D sequential-assignment experiments using proton detection under fast MAS lead to signal intensities much smaller than the theoretically expected ones due to the low transfer efficiency of some of the steps. Here, we present a selective 3D experiment for deuterated and (amide) proton back-exchanged proteins where polarization is directly transferred from backbone nitrogen to selected backbone or sidechain carbons. The proposed pulse sequence uses only ¹H–¹⁵N cross-polarization (CP) transfers, which are, for deuterated proteins, about 30% more efficient than ¹H–¹³C CP transfers, and employs a dipolar version of the INEPT experiment for N–C transfer. By avoiding H^N–C (H^N stands for amide protons) and C–C CP transfers, we could achieve higher selectivity and increased signal intensities compared to other pulse sequences containing long-range CP transfers. The REDOR transfer is designed with an additional selective π pulse, which enables the selective transfer of the polarization to the desired ¹³C spins.     

Near-complete <Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C, <Superscript>15</Superscript>N resonance assignments of dimethylsulfoxide-denatured TGFBIp FAS1-4 A546T

The transforming growth factor beta induced protein (TGFBIp) is a major protein component of the human cornea. Mutations occurring in TGFBIp may cause corneal dystrophies, which ultimately lead to loss of vision. The majority of the disease-causing mutations are located in the C-terminal domain of TGFBIp, referred as the fourth fascilin-1 (FAS1-4) domain. In the present study the FAS1-4 Ala546Thr, a mutation that causes lattice corneal dystrophy, was investigated in dimethylsulfoxide using liquid-state NMR spectroscopy, to enable H/D exchange strategies for identification of the core formed in mature fibrils. Isotope-labeled fibrillated FAS1-4 A546T was dissolved in a ternary mixture 95/4/1 v/v/v% dimethylsulfoxide/water/trifluoroacetic acid, to obtain and assign a reference 2D ¹H–¹⁵N HSQC spectrum for the H/D exchange analysis. Here, we report the near-complete assignments of backbone and aliphatic side chain ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N resonances for unfolded FAS1-4 A546T at 25 °C.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C and <Superscript>15</Superscript>N NMR assignments of an unusual Ca<Superscript>2+</Superscript>-binding protein from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Entamoeba histolytica</Emphasis> in its apo form

We report almost complete sequence specific ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N NMR assignments of an unusual Ca²⁺-binding protein from Entamoeba histolytica (EhCaBP6) in its apo form as a prelude to its structural and functional characterization.     

Conformational signatures of <Superscript>13</Superscript>C chemical shifts in RNA ribose

The conformational dependence of ¹³C chemical shift values of RNA riboses determined by liquid-state NMR spectroscopy was evaluated using data deposited for RNA structures in the RCSD and BMRB data bases. Results derived support the applicability of the canonical coordinates approach of Rossi and Harbison (J Magn Reson 151:1–8, 2001) in liquid-state NMR to assess the sugar pucker of ribose units in RNA. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C and <Superscript>15</Superscript>N resonance assignments for a chemokine receptor-binding domain of FROUNT,a cytoplasmic regulator of chemotaxis

FROUNT is a cytoplasmic protein that interacts with the membrane-proximal C-terminal regions (Pro-Cs) of the CCR2 and CCR5 chemokine receptors. The interactions between FROUNT and the chemokine receptors play an important role in the migration of inflammatory immune cells. Therefore, FROUNT is a potential drug target for inflammatory diseases. However, the structural basis of the interactions between FROUNT and the chemokine receptors remains to be elucidated. We previously identified the C-terminal region (residues 532–656) of FROUNT as the structural domain responsible for the Pro-C binding, referred to as the chemokine receptor-binding domain (CRBD), and then constructed its mutant, bearing L538E/P612S mutations, with improved NMR spectral quality, referred to as CRBD_LEPS. We now report the main-chain and side-chain ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁵N resonance assignments of CRBD_LEPS. The NMR signals of CRBD_LEPS were well dispersed and their intensities were uniform on the ¹H–¹⁵N HSQC spectrum, and thus almost all of the main-chain and side-chain resonances were assigned. This assignment information provides the foundation for NMR studies of the three-dimensional structure of CRBD_LEPS in solution and its interactions with chemokine receptors.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C and <Superscript>15</Superscript>N NMR assignments of a calcium-binding protein from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Entamoeba histolytica</Emphasis>

We report almost complete sequence specific ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N NMR assignments of a 150-residue long calmodulin-like calcium-binding protein from Entamoeba histolytica (EhCaBP6), as a prelude to its structural and functional characterization.     

Automated amino acid side-chain NMR assignment of proteins using <Superscript>13</Superscript>C- and <Superscript>15</Superscript>N-resolved 3D [<Superscript>1</Superscript>H,<Superscript>1</Superscript>H]-NOESY

ASCAN is a new algorithm for automatic sequence-specific NMR assignment of amino acid side-chains in proteins, which uses as input the primary structure of the protein, chemical shift lists of (1)H(N), (15)N, (13)C(alpha), (13)C(beta) and possibly (1)H(alpha) from the previous polypeptide backbone assignment, and one or several 3D (13)C- or (15)N-resolved [(1)H,(1)H]-NOESY spectra. ASCAN has also been laid out for the use of TOCSY-type data sets as supplementary input. The program assigns new resonances based on comparison of the NMR signals expected from the chemical structure with the experimentally observed NOESY peak patterns. The core parts of the algorithm are a procedure for generating expected peak positions, which is based on variable combinations of assigned and unassigned resonances that arise for the different amino acid types during the assignment procedure, and a corresponding set of acceptance criteria for assignments based on the NMR experiments used. Expected patterns of NOESY cross peaks involving unassigned resonances are generated using the list of previously assigned resonances, and tentative chemical shift values for the unassigned signals taken from the BMRB statistics for globular proteins. Use of this approach with the 101-amino acid residue protein FimD(25-125) resulted in 84% of the hydrogen atoms and their covalently bound heavy atoms being assigned with a correctness rate of 90%. Use of these side-chain assignments as input for automated NOE assignment and structure calculation with the ATNOS/CANDID/DYANA program suite yielded structure bundles of comparable quality, in terms of precision and accuracy of the atomic coordinates, as those of a reference structure determined with interactive assignment procedures. A rationale for the high quality of the ASCAN-based structure determination results from an analysis of the distribution of the assigned side chains, which revealed near-complete assignments in the core of the protein, with most of the incompletely assigned residues located at or near the protein surface.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>15</Superscript>N and <Superscript>13</Superscript>C backbone resonance assignments of pentaerythritol tetranitrate reductase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Enterobacter cloacae</Emphasis> PB2

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate reductase (PETNR) is a flavoenzyme possessing a broad substrate specificity and is a member of the Old Yellow Enzyme family of oxidoreductases. As well as having high potential as an industrial biocatalyst, PETNR is an excellent model system for studying hydrogen transfer reactions. Mechanistic studies performed with PETNR using stopped-flow methods have shown that tunneling contributes towards hydride transfer from the NAD(P)H coenzyme to the flavin mononucleotide (FMN) cofactor and fast protein dynamics have been inferred to facilitate this catalytic step. Herein, we report the near-complete ¹H, ¹⁵N and ¹³C backbone resonance assignments of PETNR in a stoichiometric complex with the FMN cofactor in its native oxidized form, which were obtained using heteronuclear multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. A total of 97% of all backbone resonances were assigned, with 333 out of a possible 344 residues assigned in the ¹H–¹⁵N TROSY spectrum. This is the first report of an NMR structural study of a flavoenzyme from the Old Yellow Enzyme family and it lays the foundation for future investigations of functional dynamics in hydride transfer catalytic mechanism.     

Structure determination of proteins in <Superscript>2</Superscript>H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O solution aided by a deuterium-decoupled 3D HCA(N)CO experiment

We developed an NMR pulse sequence, 3D HCA(N)CO, to correlate the chemical shifts of protein backbone ¹Hα and ¹³Cα to those of ¹³C′ in the preceding residue. By applying ²H decoupling, the experiment was accomplished with high sensitivity comparable to that of HCA(CO)N. When combined with HCACO, HCAN and HCA(CO)N, the HCA(N)CO sequence allows the sequential assignment using backbone ¹³C′ and amide ¹⁵N chemical shifts without resort to backbone amide protons. This assignment strategy was demonstrated for ¹³C/¹⁵N-labeled GB1 dissolved in ²H₂O. The quality of the GB1 structure determined in ²H₂O was similar to that determined in H₂O in spite of significantly smaller number of NOE correlations. Thus this strategy enables the determination of protein structures in ²H₂O or H₂O at high pH values.     

1-<Superscript>13</Superscript>C amino acid selective labeling in a <Superscript>2</Superscript>H<Superscript>15</Superscript>N background for NMR studies of large proteins

Isotope labeling by residue type (LBRT) has long been an important tool for resonance assignments at the limit where other approaches, such as triple-resonance experiments or NOESY methods do not succeed in yielding complete assignments. While LBRT has become less important for small proteins it can be the method of last resort for completing assignments of the most challenging protein systems. Here we present an approach where LBRT is achieved by adding protonated ¹⁴N amino acids that are ¹³C labeled at the carbonyl position to a medium for uniform deuteration and ¹⁵N labeling. This has three important benefits over conventional ¹⁵N LBRT in a deuterated back ground: (1) selective TROSY-HNCO cross peaks can be observed with high sensitivity for amino-acid pairs connected by the labeling, and the amide proton of the residue following the ¹³C labeled amino acid is very sharp since its alpha position is deuterated, (2) the ¹³C label at the carbonyl position is less prone to scrambling than the ¹⁵N at the α-amino position, and (3) the peaks for the 1-¹³C labeled amino acids can be identified easily from the large intensity reduction in the ¹H-¹⁵N TROSY-HSQC spectrum for some residues that do not significantly scramble nitrogens, such as alanine and tyrosine. This approach is cost effective and has been successfully applied to proteins larger than 40 kDa. Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Resolution-optimized NMR measurement of <Superscript>1</Superscript>D<Subscript>CH</Subscript>, <Superscript>1</Superscript>D<Subscript>CC</Subscript> and <Superscript>2</Superscript>D<Subscript>CH</Subscript> residual dipolar couplings in nucleic acid bases

New methods are described for accurate measurement of multiple residual dipolar couplings in nucleic acid bases. The methods use TROSY-type pulse sequences for optimizing resolution and sensitivity, and rely on the E.COSY principle to measure the relatively small two-bond ²D_CH couplings at high precision. Measurements are demonstrated for a 24-nt stem-loop RNA sequence, uniformly enriched in ¹³C, and aligned in Pf1. The recently described pseudo-3D method is used to provide homonuclear ¹H-¹H decoupling, which minimizes cross-correlation effects and optimizes resolution. Up to seven ¹H-¹³C and ¹³C-¹³C couplings are measured for pyrimidines (U and C), including ¹D_C5H5, ¹D_C6H6, ²D_C5H6, ²D_C6H5, ¹D_C5C4, ¹D_C5C6, and ²D_C4H5. For adenine, four base couplings (¹D_C2H2, ¹D_C8H8, ¹D_C4C5, and ¹D_C5C6) are readily measured whereas for guanine only three couplings are accessible at high relative accuracy (¹D_C8H8, ¹D_C4C5, and ¹D_C5C6). Only three dipolar couplings are linearly independent in planar structures such as nucleic acid bases, permitting cross validation of the data and evaluation of their accuracies. For the vast majority of dipolar couplings, the error is found to be less than ±3% of their possible range, indicating that the measurement accuracy is not limiting when using these couplings as restraints in structure calculations. Reported isotropic values of the one- and two-bond J couplings cluster very tightly for each type of nucleotide.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>15</Superscript>N and <Superscript>13</Superscript>C resonance assignments of the C-terminal domain of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vibrio cholerae</Emphasis> TolA protein

Vibrio cholerae is the bacterial causative agent of the human disease cholera. Non-pathogenic bacterium can be converted to pathogenic following infection by a filamentous phage, CTXΦ, that carries the cholera toxin encoding genes. A crucial step during phage infection requires a direct interaction between the CTXΦ minor coat protein (pIII^CTX) and the C-terminal domain of V. cholerae TolA protein (TolAIIIvc). In order to get a better understanding of TolA function during the infection process, we have initiated a study of the V. cholerae TolAIII domain by 2D and 3D heteronuclear NMR. With the exception of the His-tag (H123–H128), 97 % of backbone ¹H, ¹⁵N and ¹³C resonances were assigned and the side chain assignments for 92 % of the protein were obtained (BMRB deposit with accession number 25689).     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C and <Superscript>15</Superscript>N NMR assignments of a bacterial immunoglobulin-like domain (group 2) of a protein of a bacterium <Emphasis Type="Italic">Paenarthrobacter aurescens</Emphasis> TC1

The bacterial immunoglobulin-like (Big) domain is one of the prevalent domain types, which facilitates cell–cell adhesion by assembling into multi-domain architectures. We selected a four Big_2 domain protein (named ‘Arig’) from a Gram positive, Paenarthrobacter aurescens TC1 (known earlier as Arthrobacter aurescens TC1). In an attempt to characterize structural and ligand-binding features of individual Big_2 domains, we have cloned, overexpressed, isolated and purified the second Big_2 domain of Arig along with a few of its adjacent Big_2 domain residues (residue 143 to 269) referred to as ‘Arig2’. The ¹³C/¹⁵N-doubly-labeled His-tagged Arig2 (133 residues long) showed an ordered conformation as revealed by the well dispersed 2D [¹⁵N-¹H]-HSQC spectrum. Subsequently, a suite of heteronuclear 3D NMR experiments has enabled almost complete ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N NMR resonance assignments of Arig2.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H and <Superscript>15</Superscript>N resonance assignment,secondary structure and dynamic behaviour of the C-terminal domain of human papillomavirus oncoprotein E6

E6 is a viral oncoprotein implicated in cervical cancers, produced by human papillomaviruses (HPVs). E6 contains two putative zinc-binding domains of about 75 residues each. The difficulty in producing recombinant E6 has long hindered the obtention of structural data. Recently, we described the expression and purification of E6-C 4C/4S, a stable, folded mutant of the C-terminal domain of HPV16 E6. Here, we have produced ¹⁵N-labelled samples of E6-C 4C/4S for structural studies by NMR. We have assigned most ¹H and ¹⁵N resonances and identified the elements of secondary structure of the domain. The domain displays an original / topology with roughly equal proportions of -helix and -sheet. The PDZ-binding region of E6, located at the extreme C-terminus of the domain, is in a random conformation. Mass spectrometry demonstrated the presence of one zinc ion per protein molecule. Kinetics of replacement of zinc by cadmium followed by ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC experiments revealed specific frequency changes for the zinc-binding cysteines and their immediate neighbours. NMR spectra were affected by severe line-broadening effects which seriously hindered the assignment work. Investigation of these effects by ¹⁵N relaxation experiments showed that they are due to heterogeneous dynamic behaviour with s–ms time scale motions occurring in localised regions of the monomeric domain.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>15</Superscript>N, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C backbone resonance assignment of the C-terminal domain of enzyme I from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis</Emphasis>

Phosphoenolpyruvate binding to the C-terminal domain (EIC) of enzyme I of the bacterial phosphotransferase system (PTS) initiates a phosphorylation cascade that results in sugar translocation across the cell membrane and controls a large number of essential pathways in bacterial metabolism. EIC undergoes an expanded to compact conformational equilibrium that is regulated by ligand binding and determines the phosphorylation state of the overall PTS. Here, we report the backbone ¹H, ¹⁵N and ¹³C chemical shift assignments of the 70 kDa EIC dimer from the thermophilic bacterium Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis. Assignments were obtained at 70 °C by heteronuclear multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. In total, 90% of all backbone resonances were assigned, with 264 out of a possible 299 residues assigned in the ¹H–¹⁵N TROSY spectrum. The secondary structure predicted from the assigned backbone resonance using the program TALOS+ is in good agreement with the X-ray crystal structure of T. tengcongensis EIC. The reported assignments will allow detailed structural and thermodynamic investigations on the coupling between ligand binding and conformational dynamics in EIC.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H, <Superscript>15</Superscript>N,and <Superscript>13</Superscript>C chemical shift assignments of the regulatory domain of human calcineurin

Calcineurin (CaN) plays an important role in T-cell activation, cardiac system development and nervous system function. Previous studies have demonstrated that the regulatory domain (RD) of CaN binds calmodulin (CaM) towards the N-terminal end. Calcium-loaded CaM activates the serine/threonine phosphatase activity of CaN by binding to the RD, although the mechanistic details of this interaction remain unclear. It is thought that CaM binding at the RD displaces the auto-inhibitory domain (AID) from the active site of CaN, activating phosphatase activity. In the absence of calcium-loaded CaM, the RD is disordered, and binding of CaM induces folding in the RD. In order to provide mechanistic detail about the CaM–CaN interaction, we have undertaken an NMR study of the RD of CaN. Complete ¹³C, ¹⁵N and ¹H assignments of the RD of CaN were obtained using solution NMR spectroscopy. The backbone of RD has been assigned using a combination of ¹³C-detected CON-IPAP experiments as well as traditional HNCO, HNCA, HNCOCA and HNCACB-based 3D NMR spectroscopy. A ¹⁵N-resolved TOCSY experiment has been used to assign Hα and Hβ chemical shifts.