Gadolinium tagging for high-precision measurements of 6 nm distances in protein assemblies by EPR

J Am Chem Soc. 2011 Jul 13;133(27):10418-21. doi: 10.1021/ja204415w. Epub 2011 Jun 16.

Abstract

Double electron-electron resonance (DEER) distance measurements of a protein complex tagged with two Gd(3+) chelates developed for rigid positioning of the metal ion are shown to deliver outstandingly accurate distance measurements in the 6 nm range. The accuracy was assessed by comparison with modeled distance distributions based on the three-dimensional molecular structures of the protein and the tag and further comparison with paramagnetic NMR data. The close agreement between the predicted and experimentally measured distances opens new possibilities for investigating the structure of biomolecular assemblies. As an example, we show that the dimer interface of rat ERp29 in solution is the same as that determined previously for human ERp29 in the single crystal.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Gadolinium / chemistry*
  • Heat-Shock Proteins / chemistry*
  • Heat-Shock Proteins / genetics
  • Humans
  • Mutation
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Protein Structure, Secondary
  • Rats

Substances

  • ERP29 protein, human
  • Erp29 protein, rat
  • Heat-Shock Proteins
  • Gadolinium