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Raum HN, Modig K, Akke M, Weininger U. Proton Transfer Kinetics in Histidine Side Chains Determined by pH-Dependent Multi-Nuclear NMR Relaxation. J Am Chem Soc 2024; 146:22284-22294. [PMID: 39103163 PMCID: PMC11328173 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c04647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/07/2024]
Abstract
Histidine is a key amino-acid residue in proteins with unique properties engendered by its imidazole side chain that can exist in three different states: two different neutral tautomeric forms and a protonated, positively charged one with a pKa value close to physiological pH. Commonly, two or all three states coexist and interchange rapidly, enabling histidine to act as both donor and acceptor of hydrogen bonds, coordinate metal ions, and engage in acid/base catalysis. Understanding the exchange dynamics among the three states is critical for assessing histidine's mechanistic role in catalysis, where the rate of proton exchange and interconversion among tautomers might be rate limiting for turnover. Here, we determine the exchange kinetics of histidine residues with pKa values representative of the accessible range from 5 to 9 by measuring pH-dependent 15N, 13C, and 1H transverse relaxation rate constants for 5 nuclei in each imidazole. Proton exchange between the imidazole and the solvent is mediated by hydronium ions at acidic and neutral pH, whereas hydroxide mediated exchange becomes the dominant mechanism at basic pH. Proton transfer is very fast and reaches the diffusion limit for pKa values near neutral pH. We identify a direct pathway between the two tautomeric forms, likely mediated by a bridging water molecule or, in the case of high pH, hydroxide ion. For histidines with pKa 7, we determine all rate constants (lifetimes) involving protonation over the entire pH range. Our approach should enable critical insights into enzymatic acid/base catalyzed reactions involving histidines in proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heiner N Raum
- Institute of Physics, Biophysics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale) D-06120, Germany
| | - Kristofer Modig
- Division of Biophysical Chemistry, Center for Molecular Protein Science, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, Lund SE-22100, Sweden
| | - Mikael Akke
- Division of Biophysical Chemistry, Center for Molecular Protein Science, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, Lund SE-22100, Sweden
| | - Ulrich Weininger
- Institute of Physics, Biophysics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale) D-06120, Germany
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Danmaliki GI, Yu S, Braun S, Zhao YY, Moore J, Fahlman RP, West FG, Hwang PM. Cost-effective selective deuteration of aromatic amino acid residues produces long-lived solution 1H NMR magnetization in proteins. JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE (SAN DIEGO, CALIF. : 1997) 2023; 353:107499. [PMID: 37307676 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2023.107499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Revised: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Solution NMR studies of large proteins are hampered by rapid signal decay due to short-range dipolar 1H-1H and 1H-13C interactions. These are attenuated by rapid rotation in methyl groups and by deuteration (2H), so selective 1H,13C-isotope labelling of methyl groups in otherwise perdeuterated proteins, combined with methyl transverse relaxation optimized spectroscopy (methyl-TROSY), is now standard for solution NMR of large protein systems > 25 kDa. For non-methyl positions, long-lived magnetization can be introduced as isolated 1H-12C groups. We have developed a cost-effective chemical synthesis for producing selectively deuterated phenylpyruvate and hydroxyphenylpyruvate. Feeding these amino acid precursors to E. coli in D2O, along with selectively deuterated anthranilate and unlabeled histidine, results in isolated and long-lived 1H magnetization in the aromatic rings of Phe (HD, HZ), Tyr (HD), Trp (HH2, HE3) and His (HD2 and HE1). We are additionally able to obtain stereoselective deuteration of Asp, Asn, and Lys amino acid residues using unlabeled glucose and fumarate as carbon sources and oxalate and malonate as metabolic inhibitors. Combining these approaches produces isolated 1H-12C groups in Phe, Tyr, Trp, His, Asp, Asn, and Lys in a perdeuterated background, which is compatible with standard 1H-13C labeling of methyl groups in Ala, Ile, Leu, Val, Thr, Met. We show that isotope labeling of Ala is improved using the transaminase inhibitor L-cycloserine, and labeling of Thr is improved through addition of Cys and Met, which are known inhibitors of homoserine dehydrogenase. We demonstrate the creation of long-lived 1H NMR signals in most amino acid residues using our model system, the WW domain of human Pin1, as well as the bacterial outer membrane protein PagP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaddafi I Danmaliki
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Shaohui Yu
- Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Shelly Braun
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Yuan Y Zhao
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Jack Moore
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Richard P Fahlman
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Frederick G West
- Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Peter M Hwang
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3, Canada.
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Akke M, Weininger U. NMR Studies of Aromatic Ring Flips to Probe Conformational Fluctuations in Proteins. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:591-599. [PMID: 36640108 PMCID: PMC9884080 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c07258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2022] [Revised: 12/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Aromatic residues form a significant part of the protein core, where they make tight interactions with multiple surrounding side chains. Despite the dense packing of internal side chains, the aromatic rings of phenylalanine and tyrosine residues undergo 180° rotations, or flips, which are mediated by transient and large-scale "breathing" motions that generate sufficient void volume around the aromatic ring. Forty years after the seminal work by Wagner and Wüthrich, NMR studies of aromatic ring flips are now undergoing a renaissance as a powerful means of probing fundamental dynamic properties of proteins. Recent developments of improved NMR methods and isotope labeling schemes have enabled a number of advances in addressing the mechanisms and energetics of aromatic ring flips. The nature of the transition states associated with ring flips can be described by thermodynamic activation parameters, including the activation enthalpy, activation entropy, activation volume, and also the isothermal volume compressibility of activation. Consequently, it is of great interest to study how ring flip rate constants and activation parameters might vary with protein structure and external conditions like temperature and pressure. The field is beginning to gather such data for aromatic residues in a variety of environments, ranging from surface exposed to buried. In the future, the combination of solution and solid-state NMR spectroscopy together with molecular dynamics simulations and other computational approaches is likely to provide detailed information about the coupled dynamics of aromatic rings and neighboring residues. In this Perspective, we highlight recent developments and provide an outlook toward the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mikael Akke
- Division
of Biophysical Chemistry, Center for Molecular Protein Science, Department
of Chemistry, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
| | - Ulrich Weininger
- Institute
of Physics, Biophysics, Martin-Luther-University
Halle-Wittenberg, D-06129 Halle (Saale), Germany
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Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francois-Xavier Theillet
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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Raum HN, Schörghuber J, Dreydoppel M, Lichtenecker RJ, Weininger U. Site-selective 1H/ 2H labeling enables artifact-free 1H CPMG relaxation dispersion experiments in aromatic side chains. JOURNAL OF BIOMOLECULAR NMR 2019; 73:633-639. [PMID: 31506857 PMCID: PMC6859156 DOI: 10.1007/s10858-019-00275-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 09/05/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Aromatic side chains are often key residues in enzyme active sites and protein binding sites, making them attractive probes of protein dynamics on the millisecond timescale. Such dynamic processes can be studied by aromatic 13C or 1H CPMG relaxation dispersion experiments. Aromatic 1H CPMG relaxation dispersion experiments in phenylalanine, tyrosine and the six-ring moiety of tryptophan, however, are affected by 3J 1H-1H couplings which are causing anomalous relaxation dispersion profiles. Here we show that this problem can be addressed by site-selective 1H/2H labeling of the aromatic side chains and that artifact-free relaxation dispersion profiles can be acquired. The method has been further validated by measuring folding-unfolding kinetics of the small protein GB1. The determined rate constants and populations agree well with previous results from 13C CPMG relaxation dispersion experiments. Furthermore, the CPMG-derived chemical shift differences between the folded and unfolded states are in excellent agreement with those obtained directly from the spectra. In summary, site-selective 1H/2H labeling enables artifact-free aromatic 1H CPMG relaxation dispersion experiments in phenylalanine and the six-ring moiety of tryptophan, thereby extending the available methods for studying millisecond dynamics in aromatic protein side chains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heiner N Raum
- Institute of Physics, Biophysics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120, Halle, Germany
| | - Julia Schörghuber
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Matthias Dreydoppel
- Institute of Physics, Biophysics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120, Halle, Germany
| | | | - Ulrich Weininger
- Institute of Physics, Biophysics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120, Halle, Germany.
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Weininger U. Optimal Isotope Labeling of Aromatic Amino Acid Side Chains for NMR Studies of Protein Dynamics. Methods Enzymol 2018; 614:67-86. [PMID: 30611433 DOI: 10.1016/bs.mie.2018.08.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Aromatic side chains in proteins are often directly evolved in stabilizing the hydrophobic core, protein binding, or enzymatic activity. They are also responsible for specific local dynamic processes, such as histidine tautomerization or ring flips. Despite their importance, they are often not targeted directly by NMR spectroscopy, because of spectroscopic complications and challenges. This chapter addresses state-of-the-art site-selective 13C-labeling methods for aromatic side chains, and describes how they solve several of the spectroscopic issues. A special emphasis is put on thereby enabled protein dynamics experiments of aromatic side chains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrich Weininger
- Institute of Physics, Biophysics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.
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Schörghuber J, Geist L, Platzer G, Feichtinger M, Bisaccia M, Scheibelberger L, Weber F, Konrat R, Lichtenecker RJ. Late metabolic precursors for selective aromatic residue labeling. JOURNAL OF BIOMOLECULAR NMR 2018; 71:129-140. [PMID: 29808436 PMCID: PMC6096522 DOI: 10.1007/s10858-018-0188-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2018] [Accepted: 05/19/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, we developed a toolbox of heavy isotope containing compounds, which serve as metabolic amino acid precursors in the E. coli-based overexpression of aromatic residue labeled proteins. Our labeling techniques show excellent results both in terms of selectivity and isotope incorporation levels. They are additionally distinguished by low sample production costs and meet the economic demands to further implement protein NMR spectroscopy as a routinely used method in drug development processes. Different isotopologues allow for the assembly of optimized protein samples, which fulfill the requirements of various NMR experiments to elucidate protein structures, analyze conformational dynamics, or probe interaction surfaces. In the present article, we want to summarize the precursors we developed so far and give examples of their special value in the probing of protein-ligand interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Schörghuber
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 38, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Leonhard Geist
- Christian Doppler Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Dr-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna, Austria
| | - Gerald Platzer
- Christian Doppler Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Dr-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna, Austria
| | - Michael Feichtinger
- Christian Doppler Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Dr-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marilena Bisaccia
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 38, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Lukas Scheibelberger
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 38, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Frederik Weber
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 38, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Robert Konrat
- Christian Doppler Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Dr-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna, Austria
| | - Roman J Lichtenecker
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Str. 38, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
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