Paramagnetic relaxation enhancement to improve sensitivity of fast NMR methods: application to intrinsically disordered proteins

NMR-based quantification of liquid products in CO2 electroreduction on phosphate-derived nickel catalysts

Recently discovered phosphate-derived Ni catalysts have opened a new pathway towards multicarbon products via CO₂ electroreduction. However, understanding the influence of basic parameters such as electrode potential, pH, and buffer capacity is needed for optimized C₃₊ product formation. To this end, rigorous catalyst evaluation and sensitive analytical tools are required to identify potential new products and minimize increasing quantification errors linked to long-chain carbon compounds. Herein, we contribute to enhance testing accuracy by presenting sensitive ¹H NMR spectroscopy protocols for liquid product assessment featuring optimized water suppression and reduced experiment time. When combined with an automated NMR data processing routine, samples containing up to 12 products can be quantified within 15 min with low quantification limits equivalent to Faradaic efficiencies of 0.1%. These developments disclosed performance trends in carbon product formation and the detection of four hitherto unreported compounds: acetate, ethylene glycol, hydroxyacetone, and i-propanol.

Solvent paramagnetic relaxation enhancement as a versatile method for studying structure and dynamics of biomolecular systems

Solvent paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (sPRE) is a versatile nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based method that allows characterization of the structure and dynamics of biomolecular systems through providing quantitative experimental information on solvent accessibility of NMR-active nuclei. Addition of soluble paramagnetic probes to the solution of a biomolecule leads to paramagnetic relaxation enhancement in a concentration-dependent manner. Here we review recent progress in the sPRE-based characterization of structural and dynamic properties of biomolecules and their complexes, and aim to deliver a comprehensive illustration of a growing number of applications of the method to various biological systems. We discuss the physical principles of sPRE measurements and provide an overview of available co-solute paramagnetic probes. We then explore how sPRE, in combination with complementary biophysical techniques, can further advance biomolecular structure determination, identification of interaction surfaces within protein complexes, and probing of conformational changes and low-population transient states, as well as deliver insights into weak, nonspecific, and transient interactions between proteins and co-solutes. In addition, we present examples of how the incorporation of solvent paramagnetic probes can improve the sensitivity of NMR experiments and discuss the prospects of applying sPRE to NMR metabolomics, drug discovery, and the study of intrinsically disordered proteins.

In-cell NMR: Why and how?

NMR spectroscopy has been applied to cells and tissues analysis since its beginnings, as early as 1950. We have attempted to gather here in a didactic fashion the broad diversity of data and ideas that emerged from NMR investigations on living cells. Covering a large proportion of the periodic table, NMR spectroscopy permits scrutiny of a great variety of atomic nuclei in all living organisms non-invasively. It has thus provided quantitative information on cellular atoms and their chemical environment, dynamics, or interactions. We will show that NMR studies have generated valuable knowledge on a vast array of cellular molecules and events, from water, salts, metabolites, cell walls, proteins, nucleic acids, drugs and drug targets, to pH, redox equilibria and chemical reactions. The characterization of such a multitude of objects at the atomic scale has thus shaped our mental representation of cellular life at multiple levels, together with major techniques like mass-spectrometry or microscopies. NMR studies on cells has accompanied the developments of MRI and metabolomics, and various subfields have flourished, coined with appealing names: fluxomics, foodomics, MRI and MRS (i.e. imaging and localized spectroscopy of living tissues, respectively), whole-cell NMR, on-cell ligand-based NMR, systems NMR, cellular structural biology, in-cell NMR… All these have not grown separately, but rather by reinforcing each other like a braided trunk. Hence, we try here to provide an analytical account of a large ensemble of intricately linked approaches, whose integration has been and will be key to their success. We present extensive overviews, firstly on the various types of information provided by NMR in a cellular environment (the "why", oriented towards a broad readership), and secondly on the employed NMR techniques and setups (the "how", where we discuss the past, current and future methods). Each subsection is constructed as a historical anthology, showing how the intrinsic properties of NMR spectroscopy and its developments structured the accessible knowledge on cellular phenomena. Using this systematic approach, we sought i) to make this review accessible to the broadest audience and ii) to highlight some early techniques that may find renewed interest. Finally, we present a brief discussion on what may be potential and desirable developments in the context of integrative studies in biology.

In-Cell Structural Biology by NMR: The Benefits of the Atomic Scale

In-cell structural biology aims at extracting structural information about proteins or nucleic acids in their native, cellular environment. This emerging field holds great promise and is already providing new facts and outlooks of interest at both fundamental and applied levels. NMR spectroscopy has important contributions on this stage: It brings information on a broad variety of nuclei at the atomic scale, which ensures its great versatility and uniqueness. Here, we detail the methods, the fundamental knowledge, and the applications in biomedical engineering related to in-cell structural biology by NMR. We finally propose a brief overview of the main other techniques in the field (EPR, smFRET, cryo-ET, etc.) to draw some advisable developments for in-cell NMR. In the era of large-scale screenings and deep learning, both accurate and qualitative experimental evidence are as essential as ever to understand the interior life of cells. In-cell structural biology by NMR spectroscopy can generate such a knowledge, and it does so at the atomic scale. This review is meant to deliver comprehensive but accessible information, with advanced technical details and reflections on the methods, the nature of the results, and the future of the field.

13C Direct Detected NMR for Challenging Systems

Thanks to recent improvements in NMR spectrometer hardware and pulse sequence design, modern ¹³C NMR has become a useful tool for biomolecular applications. The complete assignment of a protein can be accomplished by using ¹³C detected multinuclear experiments and it can provide unique information relevant for the study of a variety of different biomolecules including paramagnetic proteins and intrinsically disordered proteins. A wide range of NMR observables can be measured, concurring to the structural and dynamic characterization of a protein in isolation, as part of a larger complex, or even inside a living cell. We present the different properties of ¹³C with respect to ¹H, which provide the rationale for the experiments developed and their application, the technical aspects that need to be faced, and the many experimental variants designed to address different cases. Application areas where these experiments successfully complement proton NMR are also described.

The contribution of electrostatics to hydrogen exchange in the unfolded protein state

Although electrostatics have long been recognized to play an important role in hydrogen exchange (HX) with solvent, the quantitative assessment of its magnitude in the unfolded state has hitherto been lacking. This limits the utility of HX as a quantitative method to study protein stability, folding, and dynamics. Using the intrinsically disordered human protein α-synuclein as a proxy for the unfolded state, we show that a hybrid mean-field approach can effectively compute the electrostatic potential at all backbone amide positions along the chain. From the electrochemical potential, a fourfold reduction in hydroxide concentration near the protein backbone is predicted for the C-terminal domain, a prognosis that is in direct agreement with experimentally derived protection factors from NMR spectroscopy. Thus, impeded HX for the C-terminal region of α-synuclein is not the result of intramolecular hydrogen bonding and/or structure formation.

Accelerating 1H NMR Detection of Aqueous Ammonia

Direct electrolytic N₂ reduction to ammonia (NH₃) is a renewable alternative to the Haber-Bosch process. The activity and selectivity of electrocatalysts are evaluated by measuring the amount of NH₃ in the electrolyte. Quantitative ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) detection reduces the bench time to analyze samples of NH₃ (present in the assay as NH₄ ⁺) compared to conventional spectrophotometric methods. However, many groups do not have access to an NMR spectrometer with sufficiently high sensitivity. We report that by adding 1 mM paramagnetic Gd³⁺ ions to the NMR sample, the required analysis time can be reduced by an order of magnitude such that fast NH₄ ⁺ detection becomes accessible with a standard NMR spectrometer. Accurate, internally calibrated quantification is possible over a wide pH range.

Multiple Site-Specific Phosphorylation of IDPs Monitored by NMR

In line with their high accessibility, disordered proteins are exquisite targets of kinases. Eukaryotic organisms use the so-called intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) or intrinsically disordered regions of proteins (IDRs) as molecular switches carrying intracellular information tuned by reversible phosphorylation schemes. Solvent-exposed serines and threonines are abundant in IDPs, and, consistently, kinases often modify disordered regions of proteins at multiple sites. In this context, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy provides quantitative, residue-specific information that permits mapping of phosphosites and monitoring of their individual kinetics. Hence, NMR monitoring emerges as an in vitro approach, complementary to mass-spectrometry or immuno-blotting, to characterize IDP phosphorylation comprehensively. Here, we describe in detail generic protocols for carrying out NMR monitoring of IDP phosphorylation, and we provide a number of practical insights that improve handiness and reproducibility of this method.

Capturing a dynamically interacting inhibitor by paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy

Transient and fuzzy intermolecular interactions are fundamental to many biological processes. Despite their importance, they are notoriously challenging to characterize. Effects induced by paramagnetic ligands in the NMR spectra of interacting biomolecules provide an opportunity to amplify subtle manifestations of weak intermolecular interactions observed for diamagnetic ligands. Here, we present an approach to characterizing dynamic interactions between a partially flexible dimeric protein, HIV-1 protease, and a metallacarborane-based ligand, a system for which data obtained by standard NMR approaches do not enable detailed structural interpretation. We show that for the case where the experimental data are significantly averaged to values close to zero the standard fitting of pseudocontact shifts cannot provide reliable structural information. We based our approach on generating a large ensemble of full atomic models, for which the experimental data can be predicted, ensemble averaged and finally compared to the experiment. We demonstrate that a combination of paramagnetic NMR experiments, quantum chemical calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations offers a route towards structural characterization of dynamic protein-ligand complexes.

Protein Structure Determination in Living Cells

To date, in-cell NMR has elucidated various aspects of protein behaviour by associating structures in physiological conditions. Meanwhile, current studies of this method mostly have deduced protein states in cells exclusively based on 'indirect' structural information from peak patterns and chemical shift changes but not 'direct' data explicitly including interatomic distances and angles. To fully understand the functions and physical properties of proteins inside cells, it is indispensable to obtain explicit structural data or determine three-dimensional (3D) structures of proteins in cells. Whilst the short lifetime of cells in a sample tube, low sample concentrations, and massive background signals make it difficult to observe NMR signals from proteins inside cells, several methodological advances help to overcome the problems. Paramagnetic effects have an outstanding potential for in-cell structural analysis. The combination of a limited amount of experimental in-cell data with software for ab initio protein structure prediction opens an avenue to visualise 3D protein structures inside cells. Conventional nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (NOESY)-based structure determination is advantageous to elucidate the conformations of side-chain atoms of proteins as well as global structures. In this article, we review current progress for the structure analysis of proteins in living systems and discuss the feasibility of its future works.

Maximizing NMR signal per unit time by facilitating the e-e-n cross effect DNP rate

The dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) efficiency is critically dependent on the properties of the radical, solvent, and solute constituting the sample system. In this study, we focused on the three spin e-e-n cross effect (CE)'s influence on the nuclear longitudinal relaxation time constant T1n, the build-up time constants of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal, TDNP and DNP-enhancement of NMR signal. The dipolar interaction strength between the electron spins driving the e-e-n process was systematically modulated using mono-, di-, tri-, and dendritic-nitroxide radicals, while maintaining a constant global electron spin concentration of 10 mM. Experimental results showed that an increase in electron spin clustering led to an increased electron spin depolarization, as mapped by electron double resonance (ELDOR), and a dramatically shortened T1n and TDNP time constants under static and magic angle spinning (MAS) conditions. A theoretical analysis reveals that strong e-e interactions, caused by electron spin clustering, increase the CE rate. The three spin e-e-n CE is a hitherto little recognized mechanism for shortening T1n and TDNP in solid-state NMR experiments at cryogenic temperatures, and offers a design principle to enhance the effective CE DNP enhancement per unit time. Fast CE rates will benefit DNP at liquid helium temperatures, or at higher magnetic fields and pulsed DNP, where slow e-e-n polarization transfer rate is a key bottleneck to achieving maximal DNP performance.

MOAG-4 promotes the aggregation of α-synuclein by competing with self-protective electrostatic interactions

Aberrant protein aggregation underlies a variety of age-related neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Little is known, however, about the molecular mechanisms that modulate the aggregation process in the cellular environment. Recently, MOAG-4/SERF has been identified as a class of evolutionarily conserved proteins that positively regulates aggregate formation. Here, by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we examine the mechanism of action of MOAG-4 by characterizing its interaction with α-synuclein (α-Syn). NMR chemical shift perturbations demonstrate that a positively charged segment of MOAG-4 forms a transiently populated α-helix that interacts with the negatively charged C terminus of α-Syn. This process interferes with the intramolecular interactions between the N- and C-terminal regions of α-Syn, resulting in the protein populating less compact forms and aggregating more readily. These results provide a compelling example of the complex competition between molecular and cellular factors that protect against protein aggregation and those that promote it.

Sensitivity enhancement for membrane proteins reconstituted in parallel and perpendicular oriented bicelles obtained by using repetitive cross-polarization and membrane-incorporated free radicals

Multidimensional separated local-field and spin-exchange experiments employed by oriented-sample solid-state NMR are essential for structure determination and spectroscopic assignment of membrane proteins reconstituted in macroscopically aligned lipid bilayers. However, these experiments typically require a large number of scans in order to establish interspin correlations. Here we have shown that a combination of optimized repetitive cross polarization (REP-CP) and membrane-embedded free radicals allows one to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio by factors 2.4-3.0 in the case of Pf1 coat protein reconstituted in magnetically aligned bicelles with their normals being either parallel or perpendicular to the main magnetic field. Notably, spectral resolution is not affected at the 2:1 radical-to-protein ratio. Spectroscopic assignment of Pf1 coat protein in the parallel bicelles has been established as an illustration of the method. The proposed methodology will advance applications of oriented-sample NMR technique when applied to samples containing smaller quantities of proteins and three-dimensional experiments.

Paramagnetic relaxation enhancement for protein-observed 19F NMR as an enabling approach for efficient fragment screening

Protein-observed 19F (PrOF) NMR is an emerging tool for ligand discovery. To optimize the efficiency of PrOF NMR experiments, paramagnetic relaxation enhancement through the addition of chelated Ni(II) was used to shorten longitudinal relaxation time without causing significant line broadening. Thus enhancing relaxation time leads to shorter experiments without perturbing the binding of low- or high-affinity ligands. This method allows for time-efficient screening of potential ligands for a wide variety of proteins in the growing field of fragment-based ligand discovery.

A Set of Efficient nD NMR Protocols for Resonance Assignments of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

The RF pulse scheme RN[N-CA HEHAHA]NH, which provides a convenient approach to the acquisition of different multidimensional chemical shift correlation NMR spectra leading to backbone resonance assignments, including those of the proline residues of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), is experimentally demonstrated. Depending on the type of correlation data required, the method involves the generation of in-phase ((15) N)(x) magnetisation via different magnetisation transfer pathways such as H→N→CO→N, HA→CA→CO→N, H→N→CA→N and H→CA→N, the subsequent application of (15) N-(13) C(α) heteronuclear Hartmann-Hahn mixing over a period of ≈100 ms, chemical-shift labelling of relevant nuclei before and after the heteronuclear mixing step and amide proton detection in the acquisition dimension. It makes use of the favourable relaxation properties of IDPs and the presence of (1) JCαN and (2) JCαN couplings to achieve efficient correlation of the backbone resonances of each amino acid residue "i" with the backbone amide resonances of residues "i-1" and "i+1". It can be implemented in a straightforward way through simple modifications of the RF pulse schemes commonly employed in protein NMR studies. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated using a uniformly ((15) N,(13) C) labelled sample of α-synuclein. The different possibilities for obtaining the amino-acid-type information, simultaneously with the connectivity data between the backbone resonances of sequentially neighbouring residues, have also been outlined.

Applications of NMR spectroscopy to systems biochemistry

The past decades of advancements in NMR have made it a very powerful tool for metabolic research. Despite its limitations in sensitivity relative to mass spectrometric techniques, NMR has a number of unparalleled advantages for metabolic studies, most notably the rigor and versatility in structure elucidation, isotope-filtered selection of molecules, and analysis of positional isotopomer distributions in complex mixtures afforded by multinuclear and multidimensional experiments. In addition, NMR has the capacity for spatially selective in vivo imaging and dynamical analysis of metabolism in tissues of living organisms. In conjunction with the use of stable isotope tracers, NMR is a method of choice for exploring the dynamics and compartmentation of metabolic pathways and networks, for which our current understanding is grossly insufficient. In this review, we describe how various direct and isotope-edited 1D and 2D NMR methods can be employed to profile metabolites and their isotopomer distributions by stable isotope-resolved metabolomic (SIRM) analysis. We also highlight the importance of sample preparation methods including rapid cryoquenching, efficient extraction, and chemoselective derivatization to facilitate robust and reproducible NMR-based metabolomic analysis. We further illustrate how NMR has been applied in vitro, ex vivo, or in vivo in various stable isotope tracer-based metabolic studies, to gain systematic and novel metabolic insights in different biological systems, including human subjects. The pathway and network knowledge generated from NMR- and MS-based tracing of isotopically enriched substrates will be invaluable for directing functional analysis of other 'omics data to achieve understanding of regulation of biochemical systems, as demonstrated in a case study. Future developments in NMR technologies and reagents to enhance both detection sensitivity and resolution should further empower NMR in systems biochemical research.

UTOPIA NMR: activating unexploited magnetization using interleaved low-gamma detection

A growing number of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic studies are impaired by the limited information content provided by the standard set of experiments conventionally recorded. This is particularly true for studies of challenging biological systems including large, unstructured, membrane-embedded and/or paramagnetic proteins. Here we introduce the concept of unified time-optimized interleaved acquisition NMR (UTOPIA-NMR) for the unified acquisition of standard high-γ (e.g. (1)H) and low-γ (e.g. (13)C) detected experiments using a single receiver. Our aim is to activate the high level of polarization and information content distributed on low-γ nuclei without disturbing conventional magnetization transfer pathways. We show that using UTOPIA-NMR we are able to recover nearly all of the normally non-used magnetization without disturbing the standard experiments. In other words, additional spectra, that can significantly increase the NMR insights, are obtained for free. While we anticipate a broad range of possible applications we demonstrate for the soluble protein Bcl-xL (ca. 21 kDa) and for OmpX in nanodiscs (ca. 160 kDa) that UTOPIA-NMR is particularly useful for challenging protein systems including perdeuterated (membrane) proteins.

(19)F Paramagnetic Relaxation Enhancement: A Valuable Tool for Distance Measurements in Proteins

Fluorine NMR paramagnetic relaxation enhancement was evaluated as a versatile approach for extracting distance information in selectively F-labeled proteins. Proof of concept and initial applications are presented for the HIV-inactivating lectin cyanovirin-N. Single F atoms were introduced at the 4-, 5-, 6- or 7 positions of Trp49 and the 4-position of Phe4, Phe54, and Phe80. The paramagnetic nitroxide spin label was attached to Cys residues that were placed into the protein at positions 50 or 52. (19)F-T2  NMR spectra with different relaxation delays were recorded and the transverse (19)F-PRE rate, (19)F-Γ2 , was used to determine the average distance between the F nucleus and the paramagnetic center. Our data show that experimental (19)F PRE-based distances correspond to 0.93 of the (1)HN-PRE distances, in perfect agreement with the gyromagnetic γ(19)F/γ(1)H ratio, thereby demonstrating that (19)F PREs are excellent alternative parameters for quantitative distance measurements in selectively F-labeled proteins.

Increasing the sensitivity of NMR diffusion measurements by paramagnetic longitudinal relaxation enhancement, with application to ribosome-nascent chain complexes

The translational diffusion of macromolecules can be examined non-invasively by stimulated echo (STE) NMR experiments to accurately determine their molecular sizes. These measurements can be important probes of intermolecular interactions and protein folding and unfolding, and are crucial in monitoring the integrity of large macromolecular assemblies such as ribosome-nascent chain complexes (RNCs). However, NMR studies of these complexes can be severely constrained by their slow tumbling, low solubility (with maximum concentrations of up to 10 μM), and short lifetimes resulting in weak signal, and therefore continuing improvements in experimental sensitivity are essential. Here we explore the use of the paramagnetic longitudinal relaxation enhancement (PLRE) agent NiDO2A on the sensitivity of (15)N XSTE and SORDID heteronuclear STE experiments, which can be used to monitor the integrity of these unstable complexes. We exploit the dependence of the PLRE effect on the gyromagnetic ratio and electronic relaxation time to accelerate recovery of (1)H magnetization without adversely affecting storage on N z during diffusion delays or introducing significant transverse relaxation line broadening. By applying the longitudinal relaxation-optimized SORDID pulse sequence together with NiDO2A to 70S Escherichia coli ribosomes and RNCs, NMR diffusion sensitivity enhancements of up to 4.5-fold relative to XSTE are achieved, alongside ~1.9-fold improvements in two-dimensional NMR sensitivity, without compromising the sample integrity. We anticipate these results will significantly advance the use of NMR to probe dynamic regions of ribosomes and other large, unstable macromolecular assemblies.

HN-NCA heteronuclear TOCSY-NH experiment for (1)H(N) and (15)N sequential correlations in ((13)C, (15)N) labelled intrinsically disordered proteins

A simple triple resonance NMR experiment that leads to the correlation of the backbone amide resonances of each amino acid residue 'i' with that of residues 'i-1' and 'i+1' in ((13)C, (15)N) labelled intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is presented. The experimental scheme, {HN-NCA heteronuclear TOCSY-NH}, exploits the favourable relaxation properties of IDPs and the presence of (1) J CαN and (2) J CαN couplings to transfer the (15)N x magnetisation from amino acid residue 'i' to adjacent residues via the application of a band-selective (15)N-(13)C(α) heteronuclear cross-polarisation sequence of ~100 ms duration. Employing non-uniform sampling in the indirect dimensions, the efficacy of the approach has been demonstrated by the acquisition of 3D HNN chemical shift correlation spectra of α-synuclein. The experimental performance of the RF pulse sequence has been compared with that of the conventional INEPT-based HN(CA)NH pulse scheme. As the availability of data from both the HCCNH and HNN experiments will make it possible to use the information extracted from one experiment to simplify the analysis of the data of the other and lead to a robust approach for unambiguous backbone and side-chain resonance assignments, a time-saving strategy for the simultaneous collection of HCCNH and HNN data is also described.

Optimized co-solute paramagnetic relaxation enhancement for the rapid NMR analysis of a highly fibrillogenic peptide

Co-solute paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) is an attractive way to speed up data acquisition in NMR spectroscopy by shortening the T 1 relaxation time of the nucleus of interest and thus the necessary recycle delay. Here, we present the rationale to utilize high-spin iron(III) as the optimal transition metal for this purpose and characterize the properties of its neutral chelate form Fe(DO3A) as a suitable PRE agent. Fe(DO3A) effectively reduces the T 1 values across the entire sequence of the intrinsically disordered protein α-synuclein with negligible impact on line width. The agent is better suited than currently used alternatives, shows no specific interaction with the polypeptide chain and, due to its high relaxivity, is effective at low concentrations and in 'proton-less' NMR experiments. By using Fe(DO3A) we were able to complete the backbone resonance assignment of a highly fibrillogenic peptide from α1-antitrypsin by acquiring the necessary suite of multidimensional NMR datasets in 3 h.

Development of a method for reconstruction of crowded NMR spectra from undersampled time-domain data

NMR is a unique methodology for obtaining information about the conformational dynamics of proteins in heterogeneous biomolecular systems. In various NMR methods, such as transferred cross-saturation, relaxation dispersion, and paramagnetic relaxation enhancement experiments, fast determination of the signal intensity ratios in the NMR spectra with high accuracy is required for analyses of targets with low yields and stabilities. However, conventional methods for the reconstruction of spectra from undersampled time-domain data, such as linear prediction, spectroscopy with integration of frequency and time domain, and analysis of Fourier, and compressed sensing were not effective for the accurate determination of the signal intensity ratios of the crowded two-dimensional spectra of proteins. Here, we developed an NMR spectra reconstruction method, "conservation of experimental data in analysis of Fourier" (Co-ANAFOR), to reconstruct the crowded spectra from the undersampled time-domain data. The number of sampling points required for the transferred cross-saturation experiments between membrane proteins, photosystem I and cytochrome b 6 f, and their ligand, plastocyanin, with Co-ANAFOR was half of that needed for linear prediction, and the peak height reduction ratios of the spectra reconstructed from truncated time-domain data by Co-ANAFOR were more accurate than those reconstructed from non-uniformly sampled data by compressed sensing.

Acceleration of natural-abundance solid-state MAS NMR measurements on bone by paramagnetic relaxation from gadolinium-DTPA

Reducing the data collection time without affecting the signal intensity and spectral resolution is one of the major challenges for the widespread application of multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, especially in experiments conducted on complex heterogeneous biological systems such as bone. In most of these experiments, the NMR data collection time is ultimately governed by the proton spin-lattice relaxation times (T1). For over two decades, gadolinium(III)-DTPA (Gd-DTPA, DTPA=Diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid) has been one of the most widely used contrast-enhancement agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this study, we demonstrate that Gd-DTPA can also be effectively used to enhance the longitudinal relaxation rates of protons in solid-state NMR experiments conducted on bone without significant line-broadening and chemical-shift-perturbation side effects. Using bovine cortical bone samples incubated in different concentrations of Gd-DTPA complex, the (1)H T1 values were calculated from data collected by (1)H spin-inversion recovery method detected in natural-abundance (13)C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR experiments. Our results reveal that the (1)H T1 values can be successfully reduced by a factor of 3.5 using as low as 10mM Gd-DTPA without reducing the spectral resolution and thus enabling faster data acquisition of the (13)C CPMAS spectra. These results obtained from (13)C-detected CPMAS experiments were further confirmed using (1)H-detected ultrafast MAS experiments on Gd-DTPA doped bone samples. This approach considerably improves the signal-to-noise ratio per unit time of NMR experiments applied to bone samples by reducing the experimental time required to acquire the same number of scans.

Nutation frequency modulation on NMR signal of nuclear spins in chemical exchange with solvent water under the BEST conditions

Solvent exchange properties of protein backbone amide protons provide valuable residue-specific information on protein solvent accessibility, structure stability and flexibility and hence are of significant interest in structural biology. NMR has served as a unique means for the characterization of chemical exchange including proton amide exchange with solvent water at residue-specific levels across a broad range of exchange rates. One of the methods used for the characterization of protein backbone amide exchange by NMR involves the use of progressive selective irradiation of the water resonance. Here, we report the experimental observation of the nutation frequency (strength of RF field used for the irradiation of water resonance) modulation on amide proton signals for those in exchange with the solvent water under the band-selective excitation short transient (BEST) conditions. Compared with conventional saturation transfer of water magnetization experiments, this nutation frequency modulation observed on signal of nuclear spins under the BEST conditions potentially offers a quick identification of protein backbone amides in rapid exchange with solvent water.

CP-HISQC: a better version of HSQC experiment for intrinsically disordered proteins under physiological conditions

(1)H-(15)N HSQC spectroscopy is a workhorse of protein NMR. However, under physiological conditions the quality of HSQC spectra tends to deteriorate due to fast solvent exchange. For globular proteins only a limited number of surface residues are affected, but in the case of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) HSQC spectra are thoroughly degraded, suffering from both peak broadening and loss of intensity. To alleviate this problem, we make use of the following two concepts. (1) Proton-decoupled HSQC. Regular HSQC and its many variants record the evolution of multi-spin modes, 2NxHz or 2NxHx, in indirect dimension. Under the effect of fast solvent exchange these modes undergo rapid decay, which results in severe line-broadening. In contrast, proton-decoupled HSQC relies on Nx coherence which is essentially insensitive to the effects of solvent exchange. Moreover, for measurements involving IDPs at or near physiological temperature, Nx mode offers excellent relaxation properties, leading to very sharp resonances. (2) Cross-polarization (1)H-to-(15)N transfer. If CP element is designed such as to lock both (1)H(N) and water magnetization, the following transfer is effected: [Formula: see text] Thus water magnetization is successfully exploited to boost the amount of signal. In addition, CP element suffers less loss from solvent exchange, conformational exchange, and dipolar relaxation compared to the more popular INEPT element. Combining these two concepts, we have implemented the experiment termed CP-HISQC (cross-polarization assisted heteronuclear in-phase single-quantum correlation). The pulse sequence has been designed such as to preserve water magnetization and therefore can be executed with reasonably short recycling delays. In the presence of fast solvent exchange, kex ~ 100 s(-1), CP-HISQC offers much better spectral resolution than conventional HSQC-type experiments. At the same time it offers up to twofold gain in sensitivity compared to plain proton-decoupled HSQC. The new sequence has been tested on the sample of drkN SH3 domain at pH 7.5, 30 °C. High-quality spectrum has been recorded in less than 1 h, containing resonances from both folded and unfolded species. High-quality spectra have also been obtained for arginine side-chain H(ε)N(ε) groups in the sample of short peptide Sos. For Arg side chains, we have additionally implemented (HE)NE(CD)HD experiment. Using (13)C-labeled sample of Sos, we have demonstrated that proton-to-nitrogen CP transfer remains highly efficient in the presence of solvent exchange as fast as kex = 620 s(-1). In contrast, INEPT transfer completely fails in this regime.

Sensitivity enhancement and contrasting information provided by free radicals in oriented-sample NMR of bicelle-reconstituted membrane proteins

Elucidating structure and topology of membrane proteins (MPs) is essential for unveiling functionality of these important biological constituents. Oriented-sample solid-state NMR (OS-NMR) is capable of providing such information on MPs under nearly physiological conditions. However, two dimensional OS-NMR experiments can take several days to complete due to long longitudinal relaxation times combined with the large number of scans to achieve sufficient signal sensitivity in biological samples. Here, free radicals 5-DOXYL stearic acid, TEMPOL, and CAT-1 were added to uniformly (15)N-labeled Pf1 coat protein reconstituted in DMPC/DHPC bicelles, and their effect on the longitudinal relaxation times (T1Z) was investigated. The dramatically shortened T1Z's allowed for the signal gain per unit time to be used for either: (i) up to a threefold reduction of the total experimental time at 99% magnetization recovery or (ii) obtaining up to 74% signal enhancement between the control and radical samples during constant experimental time at "optimal" relaxation delays. In addition, through OS-NMR and high-field EPR studies, free radicals were able to provide positional constraints in the bicelle system, which provide a description of the location of each residue in Pf1 coat protein within the bicellar membranes. This information can be useful in the determination of oligomerization states and immersion depths of larger membrane proteins.

Protein folding on the ribosome studied using NMR spectroscopy

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the investigation of protein folding and misfolding, providing a characterization of molecular structure, dynamics and exchange processes, across a very wide range of timescales and with near atomic resolution. In recent years NMR methods have also been developed to study protein folding as it might occur within the cell, in a de novo manner, by observing the folding of nascent polypeptides in the process of emerging from the ribosome during synthesis. Despite the 2.3 MDa molecular weight of the bacterial 70S ribosome, many nascent polypeptides, and some ribosomal proteins, have sufficient local flexibility that sharp resonances may be observed in solution-state NMR spectra. In providing information on dynamic regions of the structure, NMR spectroscopy is therefore highly complementary to alternative methods such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, which have successfully characterized the rigid core of the ribosome particle. However, the low working concentrations and limited sample stability associated with ribosome-nascent chain complexes means that such studies still present significant technical challenges to the NMR spectroscopist. This review will discuss the progress that has been made in this area, surveying all NMR studies that have been published to date, and with a particular focus on strategies for improving experimental sensitivity.

Studying the structure and dynamics of biomolecules by using soluble paramagnetic probes

Characterisation of the structure and dynamics of large biomolecules and biomolecular complexes by NMR spectroscopy is hampered by increasing overlap and severe broadening of NMR signals. As a consequence, the number of available NMR spectroscopy data is often sparse and new approaches to provide complementary NMR spectroscopy data are needed. Paramagnetic relaxation enhancements (PREs) obtained from inert and soluble paramagnetic probes (solvent PREs) provide detailed quantitative information about the solvent accessibility of NMR-active nuclei. Solvent PREs can be easily measured without modification of the biomolecule; are sensitive to molecular structure and dynamics; and are therefore becoming increasingly powerful for the study of biomolecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids, ligands and their complexes in solution. In this Minireview, we give an overview of the available solvent PRE probes and discuss their applications for structural and dynamic characterisation of biomolecules and biomolecular complexes.

Site-specific NMR mapping and time-resolved monitoring of serine and threonine phosphorylation in reconstituted kinase reactions and mammalian cell extracts

We outline NMR protocols for site-specific mapping and time-resolved monitoring of protein phosphorylation reactions using purified kinases and mammalian cell extracts. These approaches are particularly amenable to intrinsically disordered proteins and unfolded, regulatory protein domains. We present examples for the ¹⁵N isotope-labeled N-terminal transactivation domain of human p53, which is either sequentially reacted with recombinant enzymes or directly added to mammalian cell extracts and phosphorylated by endogenous kinases. Phosphorylation reactions with purified enzymes are set up in minutes, whereas NMR samples in cell extracts are prepared within 1 h. Time-resolved NMR measurements are performed over minutes to hours depending on the activities of the probed kinases. Phosphorylation is quantitatively monitored with consecutive 2D ¹H-¹⁵N band-selective optimized-flip-angle short-transient (SOFAST)-heteronuclear multiple-quantum (HMQC) NMR experiments, which provide atomic-resolution insights into the phosphorylation levels of individual substrate residues and time-dependent changes thereof, thereby offering unique advantages over western blotting and mass spectrometry.

The quiet renaissance of protein nuclear magnetic resonance

From roughly 1985 through the start of the new millennium, the cutting edge of solution protein nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was to a significant extent driven by the aspiration to determine structures. Here we survey recent advances in protein NMR that herald a renaissance in which a number of its most important applications reflect the broad problem-solving capability displayed by this method during its classical era during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Low concentration of a Gd-chelate increases the signal-to-noise ratio in fast pulsing BEST experiments

Despite numerous developments in the past few years that aim to increase the sensitivity of NMR multidimensional experiments, NMR spectroscopy still suffers from intrinsic low sensitivity. In this report, we show that the combination of two developments in the field, the Band-selective Excitation Short-Transient (BEST) experiment [Schanda et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 128 (2006) 9042] and the addition of the nonionic paramagnetic gadolinium chelate gadodiamide into NMR samples, enhances the signal-to-noise ratio. This effect is shown here for four different proteins, three globular and one unfolded, of molecular weights ranging from 6.5 kDa to 40 kDa, using 2D BEST HSQC and 3D BEST triple resonance sequences. Moreover, we show that the increase in signal-to-noise ratio provided by the gadodiamide is higher for peak resonances with lower than average intensity in BEST experiments. It is interesting to note that these residues are on average the weakest ones in those experiments. In this case, the gadodiamide-mediated increase can reach a value of 60% for low and 30% for high molecular weight proteins respectively. An investigation into the origin of this "paramagnetic gain" in BEST experiments is presented.