Hydrogen-deuterium exchange in structural biology

Abstract

Abstract The large difference in neutron scattering length of hydrogen and deuterium atoms provides a unique tool to study biological macromolecules. These molecules exist in an aqueous environment and have an atomic composition of about 50% hydrogen atoms with the rest being mainly carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. By simply changing the ratio of hydrogen to deuterium the contrast of a sample constituent can be changed without altering the chemical composition. The scattering difference between the hydrogen isotopes has now been used to study structural details of proteins, viruses, nucleic acid protein complexes and membranes. The use of small-angle scattering analysis from proteins in solution is a particularly good example of the power of this new technique. From the first experiments with myoglobin, hemoglobin and TMV solutions in 1968 at the HFBR in Brookhaven it became, however, soon evident that the flux was low and the detection system of a conventional spectrometer was inadequate to measure precisely small differences in the scattering pattern. Since these solution scattering patterns are circularly symmetrical, a development of multidetector systems was the first step to alleviate the need for better data. From an early five detector system [1] the development of linear and two-dimensional position sensitive detectors continues to this day [2–6]. Today, position sensitive area-detectors with an efficiency of 80% and 1.3 mm resolution with an active area of 50 cm × 50 cms are available. These detectors have a counting rate capability of 2 × 10 5 neutrons/s. Other instrumentation developments to facilitate the study of biomolecules include (1) cold moderators, (2) thin film multilayer monochromators [7–9], (3) neutron guides made either of multilayer supermirrors or coated with 58 Ni [10,11], (4) various crystal and mirror focusing devices [12,13]. Some of these features have been incorporated in a small-angle neutron spectrometer at the High Flux Beam Reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This spectrometer has a unique combination of features such as a high resolution area-detector, adjustable wavelength bandwidth and automated sample changer.