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Carbon–carbon dipolar recoupling sequences are frequently used building blocks in routine magic-angle spinning NMR experiments. While broadband homonuclear first-order dipolar recoupling sequences mainly excite intra-residue correlations, selective methods can detect inter-residue transfers and long-range correlations. Here, we present the great offset difference internuclear selective transfer (GODIST) pulse sequence optimized for selective carbonyl or aliphatic recoupling at fast magic-angle spinning, here, 55 kHz. We observe a 3- to 5-fold increase in intensities compared with broadband RFDR recoupling for perdeuterated microcrystalline SH3 and for the membrane protein influenza A M2 in lipid bilayers. In 3D (H)COCO(N)H and (H)CO(CO)NH spectra, inter-residue carbonyl–carbonyl correlations up to about 5 Å are observed in uniformly 13C-labeled proteins.

Solid-state NMR (ssNMR) is a versatile technique that can be used for the characterization of various materials, ranging from small molecules to biological samples, including membrane proteins. ssNMR can probe both the structure and dynamics of membrane proteins, revealing protein function in a near-native lipid bilayer environment. The main limitation of the method is spectral resolution and sensitivity, however recent developments in ssNMR hardware, including the commercialization of 28 T magnets (1.2 GHz proton frequency) and ultrafast MAS spinning (, Solid-state NMR (ssNMR) is a versatile technique that can be used for the characterization of various materials, ranging from small molecules to biological samples, including membrane proteins, as reviewed here.

The radio-frequency-driven recoupling (RFDR) pulse sequence is used in magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR to recouple homonuclear dipolar interactions. Here we show simultaneous recoupling of both the heteronuclear and homonuclear dipolar interactions by applying RFDR pulses on two channels. We demonstrate the method, called HETeronuclear RFDR (HET-RFDR), on microcrystalline SH3 samples at 10 and 55.555 kHz MAS. Numerical simulations of both HET-RFDR and standard RFDR sequences allow for better understanding of the influence of offsets and paths of magnetization transfers for both HET-RFDR and RFDR experiments, as well as the crucial role of XY phase cycling.

The available magnetic field strength for high resolution NMR in persistent superconducting magnets has recently improved from 23.5 to 28 Tesla, increasing the proton resonance frequency from 1 to 1.2 GHz. For magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR, this is expected to improve resolution, provided the sample preparation results in homogeneous broadening. We compare two-dimensional (2D) proton detected MAS NMR spectra of four membrane proteins at 950 and 1200 MHz. We find a consistent improvement in resolution that scales superlinearly with the increase in magnetic field for three of the four examples. In 3D and 4D spectra, which are now routinely acquired, this improvement indicates the ability to resolve at least 2 and 2.5 times as many signals, respectively.

Aggregation intermediates of Parkinson’s disease–related α-synuclein on liposomes are structurally characterized by NMR., Recent advances in the structural biology of disease-relevant α-synuclein fibrils have revealed a variety of structures, yet little is known about the process of fibril aggregate formation. Characterization of intermediate species that form during aggregation is crucial; however, this has proven very challenging because of their transient nature, heterogeneity, and low population. Here, we investigate the aggregation of α-synuclein bound to negatively charged phospholipid small unilamellar vesicles. Through a combination of kinetic and structural studies, we identify key time points in the aggregation process that enable targeted isolation of prefibrillar and early fibrillar intermediates. By using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, we show the gradual buildup of structural features in an α-synuclein fibril filament, revealing a segmental folding process. We identify distinct membrane-binding domains in α-synuclein aggregates, and the combined data are used to present a comprehensive mechanism of the folding of α-synuclein on lipid membranes.

Neurodegenerative disorders are frequently associated with β-sheet-rich amyloid deposits. Amyloid-forming proteins can aggregate under different structural conformations known as strains, which can exhibit a prion-like behaviour and distinct patho-phenotypes. Precise molecular determinants defining strain specificity and cross-strain interactions (cross-seeding) are currently unknown. The HET-s prion protein from the fungus Podospora anserina represents a model system to study the fundamental properties of prion amyloids. Here, we report the amyloid prion structure of HELLF, a distant homolog of the model prion HET-s. We find that these two amyloids, sharing only 17% sequence identity, have nearly identical β-solenoid folds but lack cross-seeding ability in vivo, indicating that prion specificity can differ in extremely similar amyloid folds. We engineer the HELLF sequence to explore the limits of the sequence-to-fold conservation and to pinpoint determinants of cross-seeding and prion specificity. We find that amyloid fold conservation occurs even at an exceedingly low level of identity to HET-s (5%). Next, we derive a HELLF-based sequence, termed HEC, able to breach the cross-seeding barrier in vivo between HELLF and HET-s, unveiling determinants controlling cross-seeding at residue level. These findings show that virtually identical amyloid backbone structures might not be sufficient for cross-seeding and that critical side-chain positions could determine the seeding specificity of an amyloid fold. Our work redefines the conceptual boundaries of prion strain and shed new light on key molecular features concerning an important class of pathogenic agents.

The voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) is one of the most highly abundant proteins found in the outer mitochondrial membrane, and was one of the earliest discovered. Here we review progress in understanding VDAC function with a focus on its structure, discussing various models proposed for voltage gating as well as potential drug targets to modulate the channel’s function. In addition, we explore the sensitivity of VDAC structure to variations in the membrane environment, comparing DMPC-only, DMPC with cholesterol, and near-native lipid compositions, and use magic-angle spinning NMR spectroscopy to locate cholesterol on the outside of the β-barrel. We find that the VDAC protein structure remains unchanged in different membrane compositions, including conditions with cholesterol.

Significance Here we show how AlkL, a minimalistic outer-membrane protein from oil-consuming bacteria, exploits dynamics of extracellular loops to channel substrate across the polysaccharide barrier and into the hydrophobic interior of the outer membrane. This work represents a unique example of a side-by-side atomic-level structure determination by solution NMR in detergents and by solid-state NMR in lipid bilayers, which critically demonstrates the importance of a lipid environment to investigate function. Corroborating our experimental measurements, molecular-dynamics simulations capture substrate transit via lateral openings. The capacity to unravel membrane protein function under near-native conditions, fueled by the latest method developments, opens up a new frontier for their investigation, and provides thereby for improved fundamental insights into biological processes., The protein AlkL is known to increase permeability of the outer membrane of bacteria for hydrophobic molecules, yet the mechanism of transport has not been determined. Differing crystal and NMR structures of homologous proteins resulted in a controversy regarding the degree of structure and the role of long extracellular loops. Here we solve this controversy by determining the de novo NMR structure in near-native lipid bilayers, and by accessing structural dynamics relevant to hydrophobic substrate permeation through molecular-dynamics simulations and by characteristic NMR relaxation parameters. Dynamic lateral exit sites large enough to accommodate substrates such as carvone or octane occur through restructuring of a barrel extension formed by the extracellular loops.

International audience; Thanks to magic-angle spinning (MAS) probes with frequencies of 60-100 kHz, the benefit of high sensitivity 1 H detection can now be broadly realized in biomolecular solid-state NMR for the analysis of microcrystalline, sedimented, or lipid-embedded preparations. Nonetheless, performing the assignment of all resonances remains a rate-limiting step in protein structural studies, and even the latest optimized protocols fail to perform this step when the protein size exceeds ~20 kDa. Here we leverage the benefits of fast (100 kHz) MAS and high (800 MHz) magnetic fields to design an approach that lifts this limitation. Through the creation, conservation and acquisition of independent magnetization pathways within a single triple-resonance MAS NMR experiment, a single self-consistent dataset can be acquired, providing enhanced sensitivity, reduced vulnerability to machine or sample instabilities, and highly redundant linking that supports fully-automated peak picking and resonance assignment. The method, dubbed RAVASSA (Redundant Assignment Via A Single Simultaneous Acquisition), is demonstrated with the assignment of the largest protein to date in the solid state, the 42.5 kDa maltose binding protein, using a single fully protonated microcrystalline sample and one week of spectrometer time.

Reported here for the first time is the alkaline periodate oxidation of lignocelluloses for the selective isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). With the high concentrations as a potassium salt at pH 10, periodate ions predominantly exist as dimeric orthoperiodate ions (H2I2O10 4−). With reduced oxidizing activity in alkaline solutions, dimeric orthoperiodate ions preferentially oxidized non‐ordered cellulose regions. The alkaline surroundings promoted the degradation of these oxidized cellulose chains by β‐alkoxy fragmentation and generated CNCs. The obtained CNCs were uniform in size and generally contained carboxy groups. Furthermore, the reaction solution could be reused after regeneration of the periodate with ozone gas. This method allows direct production of CNCs from diverse sources, in particular lignocellulosic raw materials including sawdust (European beech and Scots pine), flax, and kenaf, in addition to microcrystalline cellulose and pulp., Structure based: A novel method based on a recyclable and newly selective alkaline periodate oxidation at pH 10 provides a sustainable strategy for the efficient isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from various lignocellulosic materials. Isolation of the CNCs results from the structural differences between the ordered and non‐ordered regions of the lignocellulose.

The aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau into amyloid fibrils is closely linked to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. To gain insight into the link between amyloid structure and disease, the three-dimensional structure of tau fibrils has been studied using solid-state NMR (ssNMR) and cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). The proline-rich region of tau remains poorly defined in the context of tau amyloid structures, despite the clustering of several phosphorylation sites, which have been associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In order to gain insight into the contribution of the proline-rich region P2 of tau to amyloid fibrils, we studied in vitro aggregated amyloid fibrils of tau constructs, which contain both the proline-rich region P2 and the pseudo-repeats. Using ssNMR we show that the sequence $$^{225}{\text {KVAVVRT}}^{231}$$ 225 KVAVVRT 231 , the most hydrophobic patch within the P2 region, loses its flexibility upon formation of amyloid fibrils. The data suggest a contribution of the P2 region to tau amyloid fibril formation, which might account for some of the unassigned electron density in cryo-EM studies of tau fibrils and could be modulated by tau phosphorylation at the disease-associated AT180 epitope T231/S235.

We disclose the unprecedented hybrid‐ruthenium catalysis for distal meta‐C−H activation. The hybrid‐ruthenium catalyst was recyclable, as was proven by various heterogeneity tests, and fully characterized with various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, highlighting the physical and chemical stability. Thereby, the hybrid‐ruthenium catalysis proved broadly applicable for meta‐C−H alkylations of among others purine‐based nucleosides and natural product conjugates. Additionally, its versatility was further reflected by meta‐C−H activations through visible‐light irradiation, as well as para‐selective C−H activations., Don't say goodbye! Recyclable ruthenium catalyst enabled diverse distal C−H functionalization. State‐of‐the‐art spectroscopic and spectrometric characterizations highlighted physical and chemical stability of reusable hybrid‐ruthenium catalyst. Robustness and versatility of hybrid‐ruthenium catalysis was further reflected by meta‐ and para‐selectivity as well as visible‐light‐induced reactivity.

International audience; Building on a decade of continuous advances of the community, the recent development of very fast (60 kHz and above) magic-angle spinning (MAS) probes has revolutionised the field of solid-state NMR. This new spinning regime reduces the 1 H-1 H dipolar couplings, so that direct detection of the larger magnetic moment available from 1 H is now possible at high resolution, not only in deuterated molecules but also in fully-protonated substrates. Such capabilities allow rapid " fingerprinting " of samples with a tenfold reduction of the required sample amounts with respect to conventional approaches, and permit extensive, robust and expeditious assignment of small-to-medium sized proteins (up to ca. 300 residues), and the determination of inter-nuclear proximities, relative orientations of secondary structural elements, protein-cofactor interactions, local and global dynamics. Fast MAS and 1 H detection techniques have nowadays been shown to be applicable to membrane-bound systems. This paper reviews the strategies underlying this recent leap forward in sensitivity and resolution, describing its potential for the detailed characterization of membrane proteins. Graphical TOC

International audience; Determination of the environment surrounding a protein is often key to understanding its function and can also be used to infer the structural properties of the protein. By using proton-detected solid-state NMR, we show that reduced spin diffusion within the protein under conditions of fast magic-angle spinning, high magnetic field, and sample deuteration allows the efficient measurement of site-specific exposure to mobile water and lipids. We demonstrate this site specificity on two membrane proteins, the human voltage dependent anion channel, and the alkane transporter AlkL from Pseudomonas putida. Transfer from lipids is observed selectively in the membrane spanning region, and an average lipid-protein transfer rate of 6 s−1 was determined for residues protected from exchange. Transfer within the protein, as tracked in the 15N-1H 2D plane, was estimated from initial rates and found to be in a similar range of about 8 to 15 s−1 for several resolved residues, explaining the site specificity

β-barrel proteins mediate nutrient uptake in bacteria and serve vital functions in cell signaling and adhesion. For the 14-strand outer membrane protein G of Escherichia coli, opening and closing is pH-dependent. Different roles of the extracellular loops in this process were proposed, and X-ray and solution NMR studies were divergent. Here, we report the structure of outer membrane protein G investigated in bilayers of E. coli lipid extracts by magic-angle-spinning NMR. In total, 1847 inter-residue 1H–1H and 13C–13C distance restraints, 256 torsion angles, but no hydrogen bond restraints are used to calculate the structure. The length of β-strands is found to vary beyond the membrane boundary, with strands 6–8 being the longest and the extracellular loops 3 and 4 well ordered. The site of barrel closure at strands 1 and 14 is more disordered than most remaining strands, with the flexibility decreasing toward loops 3 and 4. Loop 4 presents a well-defined helix., Porins, like OmpG, are embedded in the outer membrane of bacteria and facilitate uptake and secretion of nutrients and ions. Here the authors present a protocol for solid state NMR structure determination of proteins larger than 25 kDa and use it to structurally characterize membrane embedded OmpG.

International audience; Biomimetic spinning of artificial spider silk requires that the terminal domains of designed minispidroins undergo specific structural changes in concert with the β-sheet conversion of the repetitive region. Herein, we combine solution and solid-state NMR methods to probe domain-specific structural changes in the NT2RepCT minispidroin, which allows us to assess the degree of biomimicry of artificial silk spinning. In addition, we show that the structural effects of post-spinning procedures can be examined. By studying the impact of NT2RepCT fiber drying, we observed a reversible beta-to-alpha conversion. We think that this approach will be useful for guiding the optimization of artificial spider silk fibers.

International audience; The recent breakthroughs in NMR probe technologies resulted in the development of MAS NMR probes with rotation frequencies exceeding 100 kHz. Herein, we explore dramatic increases in sensitivity and resolution observed at MAS frequencies of 110-111 kHz in a novel 0.7 mm HCND probe that enable structural analysis of fully protonated biological systems. Proton- detected 2D and 3D correlation spectroscopy under such conditions requires only 0.1-0.5 mg of sample and a fraction of time compared to conventional 13C-detected experiments. We discuss the performance of several proton- and heteronuclear- (13C-,15N-) based correlation experiments in terms of sensitivity and resolution, using a model microcrystalline fMLF tripeptide. We demonstrate the applications of ultrafast MAS to a large, fully protonated protein assembly of the 231-residue HIV-1 CA capsid protein. Resonance assignments of protons and heteronuclei, as well as 1H-15N dipolar and 1HN CSA tensors are readily obtained from the high sensitivity and resolution proton-detected 3D experiments. The approach demonstrated here is expected to enable the determination of atomic-resolution structures of large protein assemblies, inaccessible by current methodologies.

The yeast prion protein Sup35NM is a self-propagating amyloid. Despite intense study, there is no consensus on the organization of monomers within Sup35NM fibrils. Some studies point to a β-helical arrangement, whereas others suggest a parallel in-register organization. Intermolecular contacts are often determined by experiments that probe long-range heteronuclear contacts for fibrils templated from a 1:1 mixture of 13C- and 15N-labeled monomers. However, for Sup35NM, like many large proteins, chemical shift degeneracy limits the usefulness of this approach. Segmental and specific isotopic labeling reduce degeneracy, but experiments to measure long-range interactions are often too insensitive. To limit degeneracy and increase experimental sensitivity, we combined specific and segmental isotopic labeling schemes with dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) NMR. Using this combination, we examined an amyloid form of Sup35NM that does not have a parallel in-register structure. The combination of a small number of specific labels with DNP NMR enables determination of architectural information about polymeric protein systems.

The N-terminus of the voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) has been proposed to contain the mechanistically important gating helices that modulate channel opening and closing. In this study, we utilize magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) to determine the location and structure of the N-terminus for functional channels in lipid bilayers by measuring long-range (13)C-(13)C distances between residues in the N-terminus and other domains of VDAC reconstituted into DMPC lipid bilayers. Our structural studies show that the distance between A14 Cβ in the N-terminal helix and S193 Cβ is ∼4-6 Å. Furthermore, VDAC phosphorylation by a mitochondrial kinase at residue S193 has been claimed to delay mitochondrial cell death by causing a conformational change that closes the channel, and a VDAC-Ser193Glu mutant has been reported to show properties very similar to those of phosphorylated VDAC in a cellular context. We expressed VDAC-S193E and reconstituted it into DMPC lipid bilayers. Two-dimensional (13)C-(13)C correlation experiments showed chemical shift perturbations for residues located in the N-terminus, indicating possible structural perturbations to that region. However, electrophysiological data recorded on VDAC-S193E showed that channel characteristics were identical to those of wild type samples, indicating that phosphorylation of S193 does not directly affect channel gating. The combination of NMR and electrophysiological results allows us to discuss the validity of proposed gating models.

We thank Dr. Lewandowski for providing a Matlab code for simulating 15N R1 values via the website http://www.ens-lyon.fr/crmn/crmn/index.html.; International audience; The role of membrane proteins in cellular mechanism strongly depends on their dynamics, and solid-state magic-angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a unique method to exhaustively characterize motions of proteins in a lipid environment. Herein, we make use of advances in H-1-detected MAS NMR to describe the dynamics of the membrane domain of the Outer membrane protein A of Klebsiella pneumoniae (KpOmpA). By measuring H-1-N-15 dipolar coupling as well as N-15 R-1 and R-1 rho relaxation rates at fast (60 kHz) MAS and high magnetic field (1 GHz), we were able to describe the motions of the residues of the beta-barrel as a collective rocking of low amplitude and of hundreds of nanoseconds time scale. Residual local motions at the edges of the strands, underscored by enhanced (NT)-N-15 R-1 rho relaxation rates, report on the mobility of the connected loops. In agreement with MAS NMR data, proteolysis experiments performed on the full length KpOmpA as well as on its membrane domain, reconstituted in liposomes or in detergent micelles, revealed in all cases the existence of a unique trypsin cleavage site within the membrane domain (out of 16 potential Lys and Arg sites). This site is located in the extracellular loop L3, showing that it is highly accessible to protein-protein interactions. KpOmpA is involved in cell-cell recognition, for adhesion and immune response mechanisms. The L3 region may therefore play a key role in pathogenicity.

We acknowledge Prof Matthias Ernst, ETH, Zurich, for useful discussions and Dr Rajalakshmi and Dr Kaustubh Mote for proofreading the manuscript.; International audience; Very fast magic-angle spinning (MAS > 80 kHz) NMR combined with high-field magnets has enabled the acquisition of proton-detected spectra in fully protonated solid samples with sufficient resolution and sensitivity. One of the primary challenges in structure determination of protein is observing long-range H-1-H-1 contacts. Here we use band-selective spin-lock pulses to obtain selective H-1-H-1 contacts (e.g., H-N-H-N) on the order of 5-6 angstrom in fully protonated proteins at 111 kHz MAS. This approach is a major advancement in structural characterization of proteins given that magnetization can be selectively transferred between protons that are 5-6 angstrom apart despite the presence of other protons at shorter distance. The observed contacts are similar to those previously observed only in perdeuterated proteins with selective protonation. Simulations and experiments show the proposed method has performance that is superior to that of the currently used methods. The method is demonstrated on GB1 and a beta-barrel membrane protein, AlkL.

Work on 1H-detected NMR on biomolecular solids in our laboratory has been developed over the years with the help of Michael J. Knight, Andrew J. Pell, Amy L. Webber, Stefan Jehle, Emeline Barbet-Massin, Alessandro Marchetti, Michele Felletti, Andrea Bertarello, Torsten Herrmann, Anne Lesage and Lyndon Emsley, and has relied on several international collaborations involving Roberta Pierattelli, Isabella C. Felli, Claudio Luchinat, Ivano Bertini, Gottfried Otting, Nicholas E. Dixon, Stefano Ricagno, Martino Bolognesi, Vittorio Bellotti, Kaspars Tars, James J. Chou, Robert G. Griffin and Hartmut Oschkinat.; International audience; When combined with high-frequency (currently 60 kHz) magic-angle spinning (MAS), proton detection boosts sensitivity and increases coherence lifetimes, resulting in narrow H-1 lines. Herein, we review methods for efficient proton detected techniques and applications in highly deuterated proteins, with an emphasis on 100% selected H-1 site concentration for the purpose of sensitivity. We discuss the factors affecting resolution and sensitivity that have resulted in higher and higher frequency MAS. Next we describe the various methods that have been used for backbone and side-chain assignment with proton detection, highlighting the efficient use of scalar-based C-13-C-13 transfers. Additionally, we show new spectra making use of these schemes for side-chain assignment of methyl C-13-H-1 resonances. The rapid acquisition of resolved 2D spectra with proton detection allows efficient measurement of relaxation parameters used as a measure of dynamic processes. Under rapid MAS, relaxation times can be measured in a site-specific manner in medium-sized proteins, enabling the investigation of molecular motions at high resolution. Additionally, we discuss methods for measurement of structural parameters, including measurement of internuclear H-1-H-1 contacts and the use of paramagnetic effects in the determination of global structure.

We report a magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR structure of the drug-resistant S31N mutation of M2(18-60) from Influenza A. The protein was dispersed in diphytanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine lipid bilayers, and the spectra and an extensive set of constraints indicate that M2(18-60) consists of a dimer of dimers. In particular, similar to 280 structural constraints were obtained using dipole recoupling experiments that yielded well-resolved C-13-N-15, C-13-C-13, and H-1-N-15 2D, 3D, and 4D MAS spectra, all of which show cross-peak doubling. Interhelical distances were measured using mixed N-15/C-13 labeling and with deuterated protein, MAS at omega(r)/2 pi = 60 kHz, omega(0H)/2 pi = 1000 MHz, and 11-1 detection of methyl methyl contacts. The experiments reveal a compact structure consisting of a tetramer composed of four transmembrane helices, in which two opposing helices are displaced and rotated in the direction of the membrane normal relative to a four-fold symmetric arrangement, yielding a two-fold symmetric structure. Side chain conformations of the important gating and pH-sensing residues W41 and H37 are found to differ markedly from four-fold symmetry. The rmsd of the structure is 0.7 angstrom for backbone heavy atoms and 1.1 A for all heavy atoms. This two-fold symmetric structure is different from all of the previous structures of M2, many of which were determined in detergent and/or with shorter constructs that are not fully active. The structure has implications for the mechanism of H+ transport since the distance between His and Trp residues on different helices is found to be short. The structure also exhibits two-fold symmetry in the vicinity of the binding site of adamantyl inhibitors, and steric constraints may explain the mechanism of the drug-resistant S31N mutation.

We thank Drs. J. Hook, D. Thomas, D. Lawes, and A. Rawal from the NMR facility at University of New South Wales for spectrometer access and assistance and Dr. Jim Sun, Harvard Medical School, for initial help with NMRpipe. We are particularly grateful for Prof. Dr. Bernd Reif, TU Munchen, for generously providing SH3 protein for study in Australia and to Dr. Anthony Duff and Karyn Wilde for assistance with hydrophobin production. We are grateful for support from TGIR-RMN-THC Fr3050 CNRS. M.S. was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council RD Wright Career Development Fellowship, V.M. was supported by a University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor's Research Scholarship, L.B.A. was supported by a EU Marie-Curie IIF Fellowship, and R.L. acknowledges an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award and a Liebig Fellowship from the Verband der Chemischen Industrie.; International audience; We report acquisition of diagonal-compensated protein structural restraints from four-dimensional solid-state NMR spectra on extensively deuterated and H-1 back-exchanged proteins. To achieve this, we use homonuclear H-1-H-1 correlations with diagonal suppression and nonuniform sampling (NUS). Suppression of the diagonal allows the accurate identification of cross-peaks which are otherwise obscured by the strong autocorrelation or whose intensity is biased due to partial overlap with the diagonal. The approach results in unambiguous spectral interpretation and relatively few but reliable restraints for structure calculation. In addition, the diagonal suppression produces a spectrum with low dynamic range for which ultrasparse NUS data sets can be readily reconstructed, allowing straightforward application of NUS with only 2% sampling density with the advantage of more heavily sampling time-domain regions of high signal intensity. The method is demonstrated here for two proteins, alpha-spectrin SH3 microcrystals and hydrophobin functional amyloids. For the case of SH3, suppression of the diagonal results in facilitated identification of unambiguous restraints and improvement of the quality of the calculated structural ensemble compared to nondiagonal-suppressed 4D spectra. For the only partly assigned hydrophobin rodlets, the structure is yet unknown. Applied to this protein of biological significance with large inhomogeneous broadening, the method allows identification of unambiguous crosspeaks that are otherwise obscured by the diagonal.

International audience; Using a set of six H-1-detected triple-resonance NMR experiments, we establish a method for sequence-specific backbone resonance assignment of magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of 5-30 kDa proteins. The approach relies on perdeuteration, amide H-2/H-1 exchange, high magnetic fields, and high-spinning frequencies (omega(r)/2 pi >= 60 kHz) and yields high-quality NMR data, enabling the use of automated analysis. The method is validated with five examples of proteins in different condensed states, including two microcrystalline proteins, a sedimented virus capsid, and two membrane-embedded systems. In comparison to contemporary C-13/N-15-based methods, this approach facilitates and accelerates the MAS NMR assignment process, shortening the spectral acquisition times and enabling the use of unsupervised state-of-the-art computational data analysis protocols originally developed for solution NMR.

Resonance assignment is the first step in NMR structure determination. For magic angle spinning NMR, this is typically achieved with a set of heteronuclear correlation experiments (NCaCX, NCOCX, CONCa) that utilize SPECIFIC-CP [superscript 15]N–[superscript 13]C transfers. However, the SPECIFIC-CP transfer efficiency is often compromised by molecular dynamics and probe performance. Here we show that one-bond ZF-TEDOR [superscript 15]N– [superscript 13]C transfers provide simultaneous NCO and NCa correlations with at least as much sensitivity as SPECIFIC-CP for some non-crystalline samples. Furthermore, a 3D ZF-TEDOR-CC experiment provides heteronuclear sidechain correlations and robustness with respect to proton decoupling and radiofrequency power instabilities. We demonstrate transfer efficiencies and connectivities by application of 3D ZF-TEDOR-DARR to a model microcrystalline protein, GB1, and a less ideal system, GvpA in intact gas vesicles., National Institutes of Health. National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (Grant EB-001960), National Institutes of Health. National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (Grant EB-002926), National Institutes of Health. National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (Grant EB-001035)

The structures and properties of membrane proteins in lipid bilayers are expected to closely resemble those in native cell-membrane environments, although they have been difficult to elucidate. By performing solid-state NMR measurements at very fast (100 kHz) magic-angle spinning rates and at high (23.5 T) magnetic field, severe sensitivity and resolution challenges are overcome, enabling the atomic-level characterization of membrane proteins in lipid environments. This is demonstrated by extensive 1H-based resonance assignments of the fully protonated heptahelical membrane protein proteorhodopsin, and the efficient identification of numerous 1H–1H dipolar interactions, which provide distance constraints, inter-residue proximities, relative orientations of secondary structural elements, and protein–cofactor interactions in the hydrophobic transmembrane regions. These results establish a general approach for high-resolution structural studies of membrane proteins in lipid environments via solid-state NMR.

We thank the members of technical staff of ISA for assistance with NMR spectrometers.; International audience; 1H-detection in solid-state NMR of proteins has been traditionally combined with deuteration for both resolution and sensitivity reasons, with the optimal level of proton dilution being dependent on MAS rate. Here we present 1H-detected 15N and 13C CP-HSQC spectra on two microcrystalline samples acquired at 60 and 111 kHz MAS and at ultra-high field. We critically compare the benefits of three labeling schemes yielding different levels of proton content in terms of resolution, coherence lifetimes and feasibility of scalar-based 2D correlations under these experimental conditions. We observe unexpectedly high resolution and sensitivity of aromatic resonances in 2D 13C-1H correlation spectra of protonated samples. Ultrafast MAS reduces or even removes the necessity of 1H dilution for high-resolution 1H-detection in biomolecular solid-state NMR. It yields 15N,1H and 13C,1H fingerprint spectra of exceptional resolution for fully protonated samples, with notably superior 1H and 13C lineshapes for side-chain resonances.

The voltage-dependent anion-selective channel (VDAC) is an integral membrane protein that controls transportation of metabolites across the outer mitochondrial membrane. The mechanism by which VDAC controls ion flow is important to understanding cellular metabolic processes. It remains an unresolved problem despite publication of the structure of VDAC's open conformation. According to the first gating model proposed by Marco Colombini's group, gating occurs concurrently with large structural rearrangements, and there exist multiple conformations of closed states. These closed states have not been examined by diffraction or NMR, and thus obtaining structural information on VDAC under conditions that promote closure are valuable to unraveling the gating mechanism.Accordingly we have used magic angle spinning NMR (MAS NMR) and electrophysiological measurements to study recombinant human VDAC1 in lipid bilayers under extreme pH conditions that have been shown to perturb VDAC gating and structure. Detergent-solubilzed membrane proteins are often not amenable to solution NMR studies at extreme pH conditions; thus MAS NMR is uniquely positioned to study the structure and dynamics of closed conformations of VDAC in lipid bilayers. At pH 4 and lower we observe changes in chemical shifts and peak intensities for some, but not all, residues in VDAC's N-terminus, and for residues not in the voltage-sensing domain. Changes in chemical shifts for some residues in the N-terminus are reversed when the pH is raised from low to neutral values. Electrophysiological experiments with VDAC reconstituted into a planar lipid membrane confirmed that VDAC functions properly at pH values as low as 3.0. Furthermore, low pH enhances voltage-gating, and this pH effect is fully reversible. We discuss the implications of our observations and evaluate possible gating mechanisms.