A high sensitivity 3D experiment for measuring C α–H α residual dipolar coupling constants

Abstract

A new sensitivity improved approach is presented to measure the C α–H α scalar and dipolar coupling constants in 13C/ 15N-labeled proteins using a HA(CA)CONH scheme. The proposed experiment has significantly higher sensitivity than the previously published (HA)CA(CO)NH sequence, and provides accurate and straightforward measurements of the scalar and residual dipolar coupling constants. The sequence is easy to implement, and has been demonstrated on the C-terminal domain of the human Ku-80 protein (152 amino acid residues). On average, sensitivity is improved by 40% for both isotropic and anisotropic samples. The sensitivity enhancement is more pronounced for structured regions than unstructured regions, with an average of 50–60% enhancement being observed in the well-structured regions of the protein.