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Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) is an effective approach to alleviate the inherently low sensitivity of solid-state NMR (ssNMR) under magic angle spinning (MAS) towards large-sized multi-domain complexes and assemblies. DNP relies on a polarization transfer at cryogenic temperatures from unpaired electrons to adjacent nuclei upon continuous microwave irradiation. This is usually made possible via the addition in the sample of a polarizing agent. The first pioneering experiments on biomolecular assemblies were reported in the early 2000s on bacteriophages and membrane proteins. Since then, DNP has experienced tremendous advances, with the development of extremely efficient polarizing agents or with the introduction of new microwaves sources, suitable for NMR experiments at very high magnetic fields (currently up to 900 MHz). After a brief introduction, several experimental aspects of DNP enhanced NMR spectroscopy applied to biomolecular assemblies are discussed. Recent demonstration experiments of the method on viral capsids, the type III and IV bacterial secretion systems, ribosome and membrane proteins are then described.

We present a new phase modulated radio-frequency pulse sequence for homonuclear dipolar decoupling in proton solid-state NMR spectroscopy, eDUMBO-PLUS-1, with a chemical shift scaling factor of 0.73. This sequence was determined by screening random sequences, and experimentally optimizing the best candidates directly on H-1 NMR spectra with 60 kHz magic angle spinning. It yields efficient decoupling with linewidths as little as 150 Hz for 1.3 mm MAS probes on different spectrometers. Experiments and calculations support the hypothesis of a radio-frequency and MAS joint averaging regime, in which the large scaling factor contributes significantly to the overall performance of the decoupling sequence. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

The solid-state NMR H-1 homonuclear decoupling sequences in the DUMBO family are shown to be effective at ultra-fast MAS rates of up to 65 kHz. The sequences are applied to model compounds glycine and [2-C-13]-L-alanine as well as the dipeptide beta-L-Asp-L-Ala in windowed and continuous phase-modulated versions. They are shown to achieve especially impressive resolution when implemented in a 2D constant-time experiment. At 65 kHz MAS, H-1 resolution using homonuclear decoupling is similar to that obtained at lower MAS rates, but peak intensity, and therefore spectral sensitivity, is improved by a factor of 5 over homonuclear-decoupled spectra at 10 kHz MAS. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

We present a theoretical framework for the use of continuously phase modulated radio-frequency pulses for homonuclear decoupling in solid-state NMR. Within this framework, we have derived new families of decoupling sequences using numerical optimization. One of these sequences is tested experimentally on an ordinary organic solid, and its performance is compared with standard multiple-pulse sequences. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.