Simple Cryoprotectant-Free Method to Advance Pulsed Dipolar ESR Spectroscopy for Capturing Protein Conformational Ensembles

J Phys Chem B. 2022 Jan 20;126(2):423-429. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c08190. Epub 2022 Jan 10.

Abstract

Double electron-electron resonance (DEER) is a powerful technique for studying protein conformations. To preserve the room-temperature ensemble, proteins are usually shock-frozen in liquid nitrogen prior to DEER measurements. The use of cryoprotectant additives is, therefore, necessary to ensure the formation of a vitrified state. Here, we present a simple modification of the freezing process using a flexible fused silica microcapillary, which increases the freezing rates and thus enables DEER measurement without the use of cryoprotectants. The Bid protein, which is highly sensitive to cryoprotectant additives, is used as a model. We show that DEER with the simple modification can successfully reveal the cold denaturation of Bid, which was not possible with the conventional DEER preparations. The DEER result reveals the nature of Bid folding. Our method advances DEER for capturing the chemically and thermally induced conformational changes of a protein in a cryoprotectant-free medium.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cryoprotective Agents* / pharmacology
  • Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy / methods
  • Freezing
  • Protein Conformation
  • Spin Labels

Substances

  • Cryoprotective Agents
  • Spin Labels