Frozen spin targets in ribosomal structure research

Abstract

Polarized neutron scattering strongly depends on nuclear spin polarisation, particularly on proton spin polarisation. A single proton in a deuterated environment then is as efficient as 10 electrons in X-ray anomalous diffraction. Neutron scattering from the nuclear spin label is controlled by the polarisation of neutron spins and nuclear spins. Pure deuteron spins labels and proton spin labels are created by NMR saturation. We report on results obtained from the large subunit of E coli ribosomes which have been obtained at the research reactor of GKSS using the polarized target facility developed by CERN. The nuclear spins were oriented with respect to an external field by dynamic nuclear polarisation. Proton spin polarisations of more than 80% were obtained i9 ribosomes at temperatures below 0.5 K. At T=130 mK the relaxation time of the polarized target is one month (frozen spin target). Polarized small-angle neutron scattering of the in situ structure of rRNA and the total ribosomal protein (TP) has been determined from the frozen spin targets of the large ribosomal subunit, which has been deuterated in the TP and rRNA respectively. The results agree with those from neutron scattering in H 2O/D 2O mixtures obtained at room temperature. This is a necessary prerequisite for the planned determination of the in situ structure of individual ribosomal proteins and especially of that of ribosome bound mRNA and tRNAs.