Protein Dynamics from Accurate Low-Field Site-Specific Longitudinal and Transverse Nuclear Spin Relaxation

J Phys Chem Lett. 2019 Oct 3;10(19):5917-5922. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b02233. Epub 2019 Sep 20.

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic relaxation provides invaluable quantitative site-specific information on the dynamics of complex systems. Determining dynamics on nanosecond time scales requires relaxation measurements at low magnetic fields incompatible with high-resolution NMR. Here, we use a two-field NMR spectrometer to measure carbon-13 transverse and longitudinal relaxation rates at a field as low as 0.33 T (proton Larmor frequency 14 MHz) in specifically labeled side chains of the protein ubiquitin. The use of radiofrequency pulses enhances the accuracy of measurements as compared to high-resolution relaxometry approaches, where the sample is moved in the stray field of the superconducting magnet. Importantly, we demonstrate that accurate measurements at a single low magnetic field provide enough information to characterize complex motions on low nanosecond time scales, which opens a new window for the determination of site-specific nanosecond motions in complex systems such as proteins.

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Kinetics
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Motion
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular / methods*
  • Proteins / chemistry*
  • Protons
  • Ubiquitin / chemistry

Substances

  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Proteins
  • Protons
  • Ubiquitin