The Advanced Properties of Circularized MSP Nanodiscs Facilitate High-resolution NMR Studies of Membrane Proteins

Membrane mimetics are essential for structural and functional studies of membrane proteins. A promising lipid-based system are phospholipid nanodiscs, where two copies of a so-called membrane scaffold protein (MSP) wrap around a patch of lipid bilayer. Consequently, the size of a nanodisc is determined by the length of the MSP. Furthermore, covalent MSP circularization was reported to improve nanodisc stability. However, a more detailed comparative analysis of the biophysical properties of circularized and linear MSP nanodiscs for their use in high-resolution NMR has not been conducted so far. Here, we analyze the membrane fluidity and temperature-dependent size variability of circularized and linear nanodiscs using a large set of analytical methods. We show that MSP circularization does not alter the membrane fluidity in nanodiscs. Further, we show that the phase transition temperature increases for circularized versions, while the cooperativity decreases. We demonstrate that circularized nanodiscs keep a constant size over a large temperature range, in contrast to their linear MSP counterparts. Due to this size stability, circularized nanodiscs are beneficial for high-resolution NMR studies of membrane proteins at elevated temperatures. Despite their slightly larger size as compared to linear nanodiscs, 3D NMR experiments of the voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1) in circularized nanodiscs have a markedly improved spectral quality in comparison to VDAC1 incorporated into linear nanodiscs of a similar size. This study provides evidence that circularized MSP nanodiscs are a promising tool to facilitate high-resolution NMR studies of larger and challenging membrane proteins in a native lipid environment.