On choosing a detergent for solution NMR studies of membrane proteins

Translational diffusion coefficients and catalytic activities were measured for the integral membrane protein diacylglycerol kinase (DAGK) in a variety of types of detergent micelles. Despite the structural diversity of the detergents examined, the translational diffusion coefficients observed for DAGK spanned a fairly limited range of values: 2.7 to 4.7 (× 10^-7cm²/s). No general correlation was observed between the diffusion coefficients for the detergent-DAGK aggregates and the sizes of the corresponding protein-free micelles. These results indicate that the effective molecular weights of the DAGK-detergent aggregates were determined more by the structural properties of the protein than by the properties of the detergents. The catalytic activity of DAGK in detergents having medium-length alkyl chains such as dodecylphosphocholine or decylmaltoside was usually observed to be substantially higher than in short-chain detergents such as octylphosphocholine or octylglucoside. Taken together, the diffusion and activity results indicate that medium-chain detergents are generally preferred for use in NMR studies of complex membrane proteins because they are no worse than short-chained detergents in terms of increasing the effective molecular weight of the protein of interest while they are considerably better at maintaining native-like protein conformation. Among the 10 detergents examined, only sodium dodecylsulfate was observed to be unable to support DAGK activity under any conditions examined, suggesting that this well-known protein denaturant should be used with care in studies of complex membrane proteins.