Structure and dynamics of a membrane protein in micelles from three solution NMR experiments (original) (raw)
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NMR of membrane proteins in micelles and bilayers: The FXYD family proteins
Methods, 2007
Determining the atomic resolution structures of membrane proteins is of particular interest in contemporary structural biology. Helical membrane proteins constitute one-third of the expressed proteins encoded in a genome, many drugs have membrane-bound proteins as their receptors, and mutations in membrane proteins result in human diseases. Although integral membrane proteins provide daunting technical challenges for all methods of protein structure determination, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy can be an extremely versatile and powerful method for determining their structures and characterizing their dynamics, in lipid environments that closely mimic the cell membranes. Once milligram amounts of isotopically labeled protein are expressed and purified, micelle samples can be prepared for solution NMR analysis, and lipid bilayer samples can be prepared for solid-state NMR analysis. The two approaches are complementary and can provide detailed structural and dynamic information. This paper describes the steps for membrane protein structure determination using solution and solid-state NMR. The methods for protein expression and purification, sample preparation and NMR experiments are described and illustrated with examples from the FXYD proteins, a family of regulatory subunits of the Na, K-ATPase.
Techniques and applications of NMR to membrane proteins (Review)
Molecular Membrane Biology, 2004
The fact that membrane proteins are notoriously difficult to analyse using standard protocols for atomic-resolution structure determination methods have motivated adaptation of these techniques to membrane protein studies as well as development of new technologies. With this motivation, liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has recently been used with success for studies of peptides and membrane proteins in detergent micelles, and solid-state NMR has undergone a tremendous evolution towards characterization of membrane proteins in native membrane and oriented phospholipid bilayers. In this mini-review, we describe some of the technological challenges behind these efforts and provide examples on their use in membrane biology.
Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 2000
Uniformly 15 N-labeled samples of membrane proteins with helices aligned parallel to the membrane surface give two-dimensional PISEMA spectra that are highly overlapped due to limited dispersions of 1 H-15 N dipolar coupling and 15 N chemical shift frequencies. However, resolution is greatly improved in threedimensional 1 H chemical shift/ 1 H-15 N dipolar coupling/ 15 N chemical shift correlation spectra. The 23-residue antibiotic peptide magainin and a 54-residue polypeptide corresponding to the cytoplasmic domain of the HIV-1 accessory protein Vpu are used as examples. Both polypeptides consist almost entirely of ␣-helices, with their axes aligned parallel to the membrane surface. The measurement of three orientationally dependent frequencies for Val17 of magainin enabled the three-dimensional orientation of this helical peptide to be determined in the lipid bilayer.
Structure determination of aligned samples of membrane proteins by NMR spectroscopy
Magnetic resonance in chemistry : MRC, 2004
The paper briefly reviews the process of determining the structures of membrane proteins by NMR spectroscopy of aligned samples, describes the integration of recent developments in the interpretation of spectra of aligned proteins and illustrates the application of these methods to the trans-membrane helical domain of a protein. The emerging methods of interpreting the spectral parameters from aligned samples of isotopically labeled proteins provide opportunities for simultaneously assigning the spectra and determining the structures of the proteins, and also for comparing the results from solid-state NMR experiments on completely aligned samples with those of solution NMR experiments on weakly aligned samples.
High-Resolution NMR determination of the dynamic structure of membrane proteins.
15 N spin-relaxation rates are demonstrated to provide critical information about the long-range structure and internal motions of membrane proteins. Combined with an improved calculation method, the relaxation-rate-derived structure of the 283-residue human voltage-dependent anion channel revealed an anisotropically shaped barrel with a rigidly attached N-terminal helix. Our study thus establishes an NMR spectroscopic approach to determine the structure and dynamics of mammalian membrane proteins at high accuracy and resolution.
F1000 - Post-publication peer review of the biomedical literature, 2010
Integral membrane proteins remain a significant challenge to structural studies by solution NMR spectroscopy. This is due not only to spectral complexity but also because the effects of slow molecular reorientation are exacerbated by the need to solublize the protein in aqueous detergent micelles. These assemblies can be quite large and require deuteration for use of the TROSY effect. In principle, another approach is to employ reverse micelle encapsulation to solublize the protein in a low viscosity solvent where the rapid tumbling of the resulting particle allows use of standard triple resonance methods. The preparation of such samples of membrane proteins is difficult. Using a 54 kDa construct of the homotetrameric potassium channel KcsA we demonstrate a strategy that employs a hybrid surfactant to transfer the protein to the reverse micelle system.
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011
Residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) give orientational dependent NMR restraints that improve the resolution of NMR conformational ensembles and define the relative orientation of multidomain proteins and protein complexes. The interpretation of RDCs is complicated by protein dynamics and the intrinsic degeneracy of solutions that lead to ill-defined orientations of the structural domains (ghost orientations). Here, we illustrate how paramagnetic-based restraints can remove the orientational ambiguity of multidomain membrane proteins solubilized in detergent micelles. We tested this approach for the monomeric form of phospholamban (PLN), a 52-residue membrane protein, which is composed of two helical domains connected by a relatively flexible loop. We show that the combination of classical solution NMR restraints (NOEs and dihedral angles) with RDCs and PREs resolve topological ambiguities, improving the convergence of the PLN structural ensemble and giving the depth of insertion of the protein within the micelle. This combined approach will be necessary for membrane proteins, whose three-dimensional structure is strongly influenced by interactions with the membrane-mimicking environment rather than compact tertiary folds common in soluble proteins.
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2006
The structure determination of membrane proteins is one of the most challenging applications of solution NMR spectroscopy. The paucity of distance information available from the highly deuterated proteins employed requires new approaches in structure determination. Here we demonstrate that significant improvement in the structure accuracy of the membrane protein OmpA can be achieved by refinement with residual dipolar couplings (RDCs). The application of charged polyacrylamide gels allowed us to obtain two alignments and accurately measure numerous heteronuclear dipolar couplings. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that using a large set of RDCs in the refinement can yield a structure with 1 Å rms deviation to the backbone of the high-resolution crystal structure. Our simulations with various data sets indicate that dipolar couplings will be critical for obtaining accurate structures of membrane proteins.
Choosing membrane mimetics for NMR structural studies of transmembrane proteins
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes, 2011
The native environment of membrane proteins is complex and scientists have felt the need to simplify it to reduce the number of varying parameters. However, experimental problems can also arise from oversimplification which contributes to why membrane proteins are under-represented in the protein structure databank and why they were difficult to study by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Technological progress now allows dealing with more complex models and, in the context of NMR studies, an incredibly large number of membrane mimetics options are available. This review provides a guide to the selection of the appropriate model membrane system for membrane protein study by NMR, depending on the protein and on the type of information that is looked for. Beside bilayers (of various shapes, sizes and lamellarity), bicelles (aligned or isotropic) and detergent micelles, this review will also describe the most recent membrane mimetics such as amphipols, nanodiscs and reverse micelles. Solution and solid-state NMR will be covered as well as more exotic techniques such as DNP and MAOSS.