Project description:NMR chemical shift tensors (CSTs) in proteins, as well as their orientations, represent an important new restraint class for protein structure refinement and determination. Here, we present the first determination of both CST magnitudes and orientations for (13)Cα and (15)N (peptide backbone) groups in a protein, the β1 IgG binding domain of protein G from Streptococcus spp., GB1. Site-specific (13)Cα and (15)N CSTs were measured using synchronously evolved recoupling experiments in which (13)C and (15)N tensors were projected onto the (1)H-(13)C and (1)H-(15)N vectors, respectively, and onto the (15)N-(13)C vector in the case of (13)Cα. The orientations of the (13)Cα CSTs to the (1)H-(13)C and (13)C-(15)N vectors agreed well with the results of ab initio calculations, with an rmsd of approximately 8°. In addition, the measured (15)N tensors exhibited larger reduced anisotropies in α-helical versus β-sheet regions, with very limited variation (18 ± 4°) in the orientation of the z-axis of the (15)N CST with respect to the (1)H-(15)N vector. Incorporation of the (13)Cα CST restraints into structure calculations, in combination with isotropic chemical shifts, transferred echo double resonance (13)C-(15)N distances and vector angle restraints, improved the backbone rmsd to 0.16 Å (PDB ID code 2LGI) and is consistent with existing X-ray structures (0.51 Å agreement with PDB ID code 2QMT). These results demonstrate that chemical shift tensors have considerable utility in protein structure refinement, with the best structures comparable to 1.0-Å crystal structures, based upon empirical metrics such as Ramachandran geometries and χ(1)/χ(2) distributions, providing solid-state NMR with a powerful tool for de novo structure determination.
Project description:We have obtained the (13)C alpha chemical shift tensors for each amino acid in the protein GB1. We then developed a CST force field and incorporated this into the Xplor-NIH structure determination program. GB1 structures obtained by using CST restraints had improved precision over those obtained in the absence of CST restraints and were also more accurate. When combined with isotropic chemical shifts, distance, and vector angle restraints, the root-mean squared error with respect to existing X-ray structures was better than approximately 1.0 A. These results are of broad general interest since they show that chemical shift tensors can be used in protein structure refinement, improving both structural accuracy and precision, opening up the way to accurate de novo structure determination.
Project description:The 19F chemical shift is a sensitive NMR probe of structure and electronic environment in organic and biological molecules. In this report, we examine chemical shift parameters of 4F-, 5F-, 6F-, and 7F-substituted crystalline tryptophan by magic angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR spectroscopy and density functional theory. Significant narrowing of the 19F lines was observed under fast MAS conditions, at spinning frequencies above 50 kHz. The parameters characterizing the 19F chemical shift tensor are sensitive to the position of the fluorine in the aromatic ring and, to a lesser extent, the chirality of the molecule. Accurate calculations of 19F magnetic shielding tensors require the PBE0 functional with a 50% admixture of a Hartree-Fock exchange term, as well as taking account of the local crystal symmetry. The methodology developed will be beneficial for 19F-based MAS NMR structural analysis of proteins and protein assemblies.
Project description:Metallacyclobutanes are an important class of organometallic intermediates, due to their role in olefin metathesis. They can have either planar or puckered rings associated with characteristic chemical and physical properties. Metathesis active metallacyclobutanes have short M-Cα/α' and M···Cβ distances, long Cα/α'-Cβ bond length, and isotropic 13C chemical shifts for both early d0 and late d4 transition metal compounds for the α- and β-carbons appearing at ca. 100 and 0 ppm, respectively. Metallacyclobutanes that do not show metathesis activity have 13C chemical shifts of the α- and β-carbons at typically 40 and 30 ppm, respectively, for d0 systems, with upfield shifts to ca. -30 ppm for the α-carbon of metallacycles with higher d n electron counts (n = 2 and 6). Measurements of the chemical shift tensor by solid-state NMR combined with an orbital (natural chemical shift, NCS) analysis of its principal components (δ11 ≥ δ22 ≥ δ33) with two-component calculations show that the specific chemical shift of metathesis active metallacyclobutanes originates from a low-lying empty orbital lying in the plane of the metallacyclobutane with local π*(M-Cα/α') character. Thus, in the metathesis active metallacyclobutanes, the α-carbons retain some residual alkylidene character, while their β-carbon is shielded, especially in the direction perpendicular to the ring. Overall, the chemical shift tensors directly provide information on the predictive value about the ability of metallacyclobutanes to be olefin metathesis intermediates.
Project description:Alamethicin (ALM) is an antimicrobial peptide that is frequently employed in studies of the mechanism of action of pore-forming molecules. Advanced techniques of solid-state NMR spectroscopy (SSNMR) are important in these studies, as they are capable of describing the alignment of helical peptides, such as ALM, in lipid bilayers. Here, it is demonstrated how an analysis of the SSNMR measurements can benefit from fully periodic calculations, which employ the plane-wave density-functional theory (PW DFT) of the solid-phase geometry and related spectral parameters of ALM. The PW DFT calculations are used to obtain the structure of desolvated crystalline ALM and predict the NMR chemical shift tensors (CSTs) of its nuclei. A variation in the CSTs of the amidic nitrogens and carbonyl carbons along the ALM backbone is evaluated and included in simulations of the orientation-dependent anisotropic 15N and 13C chemical shift components. In this way, the influence of the site-specific structural effects on the experimentally determined orientation of ALM is shown in models of cell membranes.
Project description:There is considerable interest in determining amide-(15)N chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensors from biomolecules and understanding their variation for structural and dynamics studies using solution and solid-state NMR spectroscopy and also by quantum chemical calculations. Due to the difficulties associated with the measurement of CSA tensors from membrane proteins, NMR-based structural studies heavily relied on the CSA tensors determined from model systems, typically single crystals of model peptides. In the present study, the principal components of backbone amide-(15)N CSA tensors have been determined using density functional theory for a 16.7 kDa membrane-bound paramagnetic heme containing protein, cytochrome-b(5) (cytb(5)). All the calculations were performed by taking residues within 5 Å distance from the backbone amide-(15)N nucleus of interest. The calculated amide-(15)N CSA spans agree less well with our solution NMR data determined for an effective internuclear distance r(N-H) = 1.023 Å and a constant angle β = 18° that the least shielded component (δ(11)) makes with the N-H bond. The variation of amide-(15)N CSA span obtained using quantum chemical calculations is found to be smaller than that obtained from solution NMR measurements, whereas the trends of the variations are found to be in close agreement. We believe that the results reported in this study will be useful in studying the structure and dynamics of membrane proteins and heme-containing proteins, and also membrane-bound protein-protein complexes such as cytochromes-b5-P450.
Project description:Chemical shift tensors (CSTs) are sensitive probes of structure and dynamics. R-symmetry pulse sequences (RNCSA) can efficiently recouple CSTs of varying magnitudes in magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR experiments, for a broad range of conditions and MAS frequencies. Herein, we introduce dual-channel R-symmetry pulse sequences for simultaneously recording CSTs of two different nuclei in a single experiment (DORNE-CSA). We demonstrate the performance of DORNE-CSA sequences for simultaneous measurement of 13C and 15N CSTs, on a U-13C,15N-labeled microcrystalline l-histidine. We show that the DORNE-CSA method is robust, provides accurate CST parameters, and takes only half of the measurement time compared to a pair of RNCSA experiments otherwise required for recording the CSTs of individual nuclei. DORNE-CSA approach is broadly applicable to a wide range of biological and inorganic systems.
Project description:This study reports magnitudes and the orientation of the (13)C(alpha) chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensors of peptides obtained using quantum chemical calculations. The dependency of the CSA tensor parameters on the energy optimization of hydrogen atom positions and hydrogen bonding effects and the use of zwitterionic peptides in the calculations are examined. Our results indicate that the energy optimization of the hydrogen atom positions in crystal structures is necessary to obtain accurate CSA tensors. The inclusion of intermolecular effects such as hydrogen bonding in the calculations provided better agreement between the calculated and experimental values; however, the use of zwitterionic peptides in calculations, with or without the inclusion of hydrogen bonding, did not improve the results. In addition, our calculated values are in good agreement with tensor values obtained from solid-state NMR experiments on glycine-containing tripeptides. In the case of peptides containing an aromatic residue, calculations on an isolated peptide yielded more accurate isotropic shift values than the calculations on extended structures of the peptide. The calculations also suggested that the presence of an aromatic ring in the extended crystal peptide structure influences the magnitude of the delta(22) which the present level of ab initio calculations are unable to reproduce.
Project description:It has been well realized that the dependence of chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensors on the amino acid sequence, secondary structure, dynamics, and electrostatic interactions can be utilized in the structural and dynamic studies of proteins by NMR spectroscopy. In addition, CSA tensors could also be utilized to measure the structural interactions between proteins in a protein-protein complex. To this end, we report the experimentally measured backbone amide-(15)N CSA tensors for a membrane-bound 16.7 kDa full-length rabbit cytochrome-b5 (cytb5), in complexation with a 55.8 kDa microsomal rabbit cytochrome P450 2B4 (cytP4502B4). The (15)N-CSAs, determined using the (15)N CSA/(15)N-(1)H dipolar coupling transverse cross-correlated rates, for free cytb5 are compared with those for the cytb5 bound to cytP4502B4. An overall increase in backbone amide-(15)N transverse cross-correlated rates for the cytb5 residues in the cytb5-cytP450 complex is observed as compared to the free cytb5 residues. Due to fast spin-spin relaxation (T2) and subsequent broadening of the signals in the complex, we could measure amide-(15)N CSAs only for 48 residues of cytb5 as compared to 84 residues of free cytb5. We observed a change in (15)N CSA for most residues of cytb5 in the complex, as compared to free cytb5, suggesting a dynamic interaction between the oppositely charged surfaces of anionic cytb5 and cationic cytP450. The mean values of (15)N CSA determined for residues in helical, sheet, and turn regions of cytb5 in the complex are -184.5, -146.8, and -146.2 ppm, respectively, with an overall average value of -165.5 ppm (excluding the values from residues in more flexible termini). The measured CSA value for residues in helical conformation is slightly larger as compared to previously reported values. This may be attributed to the paramagnetic effect from Fe(III) of the heme in cytb5, which is similar to our previously reported values for the free cytb5.
Project description:The principal components of the (13)C NMR chemical-shift tensors for the eight unique carbon sites of crystalline indigo have been measured using the ROCSA pulse sequence. The chemical shifts have been assigned unambiguously to their respective nuclear sites through comparison of the experimental data to the results of density-functional calculations employing a refined X-ray diffraction structure. These measurements expand the database of measured aromatic (13)C chemical-shift tensors to the indole ring. Magnetic shielding calculations for hypoxanthine and adenosine are also reported. Comparisons of calculations that include the effect of the crystalline lattice with calculations that model indigo as an isolated molecule give an estimate of the intermolecular contribution to the magnetic shielding.