Perdeuterated Proteins Research Articles

Site-specific protein methyl deuterium quadrupolar patterns by proton-detected 3D 2H-13C-1H MAS NMR spectroscopy.

Determination of protein structure and dynamics is key to understand the mechanism of protein action. Perdeuterated proteins have been used to obtain high resolution/sensitivty NMR experiments via proton-detection. These methods utilizes 1H, 13C and 15N nuclei for chemical shift dispersion or relaxation probes, despite the existing abundant deuterons. However, a high-sensitivity NMR method to utilize deuterons and e.g. determine site-specific deuterium quadrupolar pattern information has been lacking due to technical difficulties associated with deuterium's large quadrupolar couplings. Here, we present a novel deuterium-excited and proton-detected three-dimensional 2H-13C-1H MAS NMR experiment to utilize deuterons and to obtain site-specific methyl 2H quadrupolar patterns on detuterated proteins for the first time. A high-resolution fingerprint 1H-15N HSQC-spectrum is correlated with the anisotropic deuterium quadrupolar tensor in the third dimension. Results from a model perdeuterated protein has been shown.

Deuteration for High-Resolution Detection of Protons in Protein Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) Solid-State NMR.

Proton detection developed in the last 20 years as the method of choice to study biomolecules in the solid state. In perdeuterated proteins, proton dipolar interactions are strongly attenuated, which allows yielding of high-resolution proton spectra. Perdeuteration and backsubstitution of exchangeable protons is essential if samples are rotated with MAS rotation frequencies below 60 kHz. Protonated samples can be investigated directly without spin dilution using proton detection methods in case the MAS frequency exceeds 110 kHz. This review summarizes labeling strategies and the spectroscopic methods to perform experiments that yield assignments, quantitative information on structure, and dynamics using perdeuterated samples. Techniques for solvent suppression, H/D exchange, and deuterium spectroscopy are discussed. Finally, experimental and theoretical results that allow estimation of the sensitivity of proton detected experiments as a function of the MAS frequency and the external B0 field in a perdeuterated environment are compiled.

The impact of folding modes and deuteration on the atomic resolution structure of hen egg-white lysozyme.

The biological function of a protein is intimately related to its structure and dynamics, which in turn are determined by the way in which it has been folded. In vitro refolding is commonly used for the recovery of recombinant proteins that are expressed in the form of inclusion bodies and is of central interest in terms of the folding pathways that occur in vivo. Here, biophysical data are reported for in vitro-refolded hydrogenated hen egg-white lysozyme, in combination with atomic resolution X-ray diffraction analyses, which allowed detailed comparisons with native hydrogenated and refolded perdeuterated lysozyme. Distinct folding modes are observed for the hydrogenated and perdeuterated refolded variants, which are determined by conformational changes to the backbone structure of the Lys97-Gly104 flexible loop. Surprisingly, the structure of the refolded perdeuterated protein is closer to that of native lysozyme than that of the refolded hydrogenated protein. These structural differences suggest that the observed decreases in thermal stability and enzymatic activity in the refolded perdeuterated and hydrogenated proteins are consequences of the macromolecular deuteration effect and of distinct folding dynamics, respectively. These results are discussed in the context of both in vitro and in vivo folding, as well as of lysozyme amyloidogenesis.

In Structural Glycobiology, Deuterium provides the Details

In this issue of Structure, Gadjos etal. (2021b) determine the structure of a bacterial lectin in complex with L-fucose by neutron diffraction of both perdeuterated protein and carbohydrate ligand. The structure provides insight into lectin-ligand interactions, opening avenues for drug design targeting bacterial lectins for intervention in infectious disease.

One-dimensional nature of protein low-energy vibrations

The authors use inelastic neutron scattering on a perdeuterated protein to show that the low-energy vibration modes are correlated primarily through peptide bonds, which can be described by a one-dimensional harmonic chain model.

Spectral editing of intra- and inter-chain methyl-methyl NOEs in protein complexes.

Specific isotopic labeling of methyl groups in a perdeuterated protein background enables the detection of long range NOEs in proteins or high molecular weight complexes. We introduce here an approach, combining an optimized isotopic labeling scheme with a specifically tailored NMR pulse sequence, to distinguish between intramolecular and intermolecular NOE connectivities. In hetero-oligomeric complexes, this strategy enables sign encoding of intra-subunit and inter-subunit NOEs. For homo-oligomeric assemblies, our strategy allows the specific detection of intra-chain NOEs in high resolution 3D NOESY spectra. The general principles, possibilities and limitations of this approach are presented. Applications of this approach for the detection of intermolecular NOEs in a hetero-hexamer, and the assignment of methyl 1H and 13C resonances in a homo-tetrameric protein complex are shown.

Protein structure prediction assisted with sparse NMR data in CASP13.

CASP13 has investigated the impact of sparse NMR data on the accuracy of protein structure prediction. NOESY and 15 N-1 H residual dipolar coupling data, typical of that obtained for 15 N,13 C-enriched, perdeuterated proteins up to about 40 kDa, were simulated for 11 CASP13 targets ranging in size from 80 to 326 residues. For several targets, two prediction groups generated models that are more accurate than those produced using baseline methods. Real NMR data collected for a de novo designed protein were also provided to predictors, including one data set in which only backbone resonance assignments were available. Some NMR-assisted prediction groups also did very well with these data. CASP13 also assessed whether incorporation of sparse NMR data improves the accuracy of protein structure prediction relative to nonassisted regular methods. In most cases, incorporation of sparse, noisy NMR data results in models with higher accuracy. The best NMR-assisted models were also compared with the best regular predictions of any CASP13 group for the same target. For six of 13 targets, the most accurate model provided by any NMR-assisted prediction group was more accurate than the most accurate model provided by any regular prediction group; however, for the remaining seven targets, one or more regular prediction method provided a more accurate model than even the best NMR-assisted model. These results suggest a novel approach for protein structure determination, in which advanced prediction methods are first used to generate structural models, and sparse NMR data is then used to validate and/or refine these models.

Characterization of perdeuterated high-potential iron-sulfur protein with high-resolution X-ray crystallography.

Perdeuteration in neutron crystallography is an effective method for determining the positions of hydrogen atoms in proteins. However, there is shortage of evidence that the high-resolution details of perdeuterated proteins are consistent with those of the nondeuterated proteins. In this study, we determined the X-ray structure of perdeuterated high-potential iron-sulfur protein (HiPIP) at a high resolution of 0.85 å resolution. The comparison of the nondeuterated and perdeuterated structures of HiPIP revealed slight differences between the two structures. The spectroscopic and spectroelectrochemical studies also showed that perdeuterated HiPIP has approximately the same characteristics as nondeuterated HiPIP. These results further emphasize the suitability of using perdeuterated proteins in the high-resolution neutron crystallography.

Gradual Crossover from Subdiffusion to Normal Diffusion: A Many-Body Effect in Protein Surface Water

Dynamics of hydration water is essential for the function of biomacromolecules. Previous studies have demonstrated that water molecules exhibit subdiffusion on the surface of biomacromolecules; yet the microscopic mechanism remains vague. Here, by performing neutron scattering, molecular dynamics simulations, and analytic modeling on hydrated perdeuterated protein powders, we found water molecules jump randomly between trapping sites on protein surfaces, whose waiting times obey a broad distribution, resulting in subdiffusion. Moreover, the subdiffusive exponent gradually increases with observation time towards normal diffusion due to a many-body volume-exclusion effect.

Partial solid-state NMR 1H, 13C, 15N resonance assignments of a perdeuterated back-exchanged seven-transmembrane helical protein Anabaena Sensory Rhodopsin.

Anabaena Sensory Rhodopsin (ASR) is a unique photochromic membrane-embedded photosensor which interacts with soluble transducer and is likely involved in a light-dependent gene regulation in the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. We report partial spectroscopic 1H, 13C and 15N assignments of perdeuterated and back-exchanged ASR reconstituted in lipids. The reported assignments are in general agreement with previously determined assignments of carbon and nitrogen resonances in fully protonated samples. Because the back-exchange was performed on ASR in a detergent-solubilized state, the location of detected residues reports on the solvent accessibility of ASR in detergent. A comparison with the results of previously published hydrogen/exchange data collected on the ASR reconstituted in lipids, suggests that the protein has larger solvent accessible surface in the detergent-solubilized state.

Selective 1H-1H Distance Restraints in Fully Protonated Proteins by Very Fast Magic-Angle Spinning Solid-State NMR.

Very fast magic-angle spinning (MAS > 80 kHz) NMR combined with high-field magnets has enabled the acquisition of proton-detected spectra in fully protonated solid samples with sufficient resolution and sensitivity. One of the primary challenges in structure determination of protein is observing long-range 1H-1H contacts. Here we use band-selective spin-lock pulses to obtain selective 1H-1H contacts (e.g., HN-HN) on the order of 5-6 Å in fully protonated proteins at 111 kHz MAS. This approach is a major advancement in structural characterization of proteins given that magnetization can be selectively transferred between protons that are 5-6 Å apart despite the presence of other protons at shorter distance. The observed contacts are similar to those previously observed only in perdeuterated proteins with selective protonation. Simulations and experiments show the proposed method has performance that is superior to that of the currently used methods. The method is demonstrated on GB1 and a β-barrel membrane protein, AlkL.

Accelerating proton spin diffusion in perdeuterated proteins at 100kHz MAS.

Fast magic-angle spinning (>60kHz) has many advantages but makes spin-diffusion-type proton-proton long-range polarization transfer inefficient and highly dependent on chemical-shift offset. Using 100%-HN-[2H,13C,15N]-ubiquitin as a model substance, we quantify the influence of the chemical-shift difference on the spin diffusion between proton spins and compare two experiments which lead to an improved chemical-shift compensation of the transfer: rotating-frame spin diffusion and a new experiment, reverse amplitude-modulated MIRROR. Both approaches enable broadband spin diffusion, but the application of the first variant is limited due to fast spin relaxation in the rotating frame. The reverse MIRROR experiment, in contrast, is a promising candidate for the determination of structurally relevant distance restraints. The applied tailored rf-irradiation schemes allow full control over the range of recoupled chemical shifts and efficiently drive spin diffusion. Here, the relevant relaxation time is the larger longitudinal relaxation time, which leads to a higher signal-to-noise ratio in the spectra.

A simple and robust protocol for high-yield expression of perdeuterated proteins in Escherichia coli grown in shaker flasks

We present a simple, convenient and robust protocol for expressing perdeuterated proteins in E.coli BL21(DE3) cells in shaker flasks that reduces D2O usage tenfold and d7-glucose usage by 30%. Using a modified M9 medium and optimized growth conditions, we were able to grow cells in linear log phase to an OD600 of up to 10. Inducing the cells with isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside at an OD600 of 10, instead of less than 1, enabled us to increase the cell mass tenfold per unit volume of cell culture. We show that protein expression levels per cell are the same when induced at an OD600 between 1 and 10 under these growth conditions. Thus, our new protocol can increase protein yield per unit volume of cell culture tenfold. Adaptation of E.coli from H2O-based to D2O-based medium is also key for ensuring high levels of protein expression in D2O. We find that a simple three-step adaptation approach-Luria-Bertani (LB) medium in H2O to LB in D2O to modified-M9 medium in D2O is both simple and reliable. The method increases the yield of perdeuterated proteins by up to tenfold using commonly available air shakers without any requirement for specialized fermentation equipment.

Efficient production of (2)H, (13)C, (15)N-enriched industrial enzyme Rhizopus chinensis lipase with native disulfide bonds.

BackgroundIn order to use most modern methods of NMR spectroscopy to study protein structure and dynamics, isotope-enriched protein samples are essential. Especially for larger proteins (>20 kDa), perdeuterated and Ile (δ1), Leu, and Val methyl-protonated protein samples are required for suppressing nuclear relaxation to provide improved spectral quality, allowing key backbone and side chain resonance assignments needed for protein structure and dynamics studies. Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris are two of the most popular expression systems for producing isotope-enriched, recombinant protein samples for NMR investigations. The P. pastoris system can be used to produce 13C, 15N-enriched and even 2H,13C, 15N-enriched protein samples, but efficient methods for producing perdeuterated proteins with Ile (δ1), Leu and Val methyl-protonated groups in P. pastoris are still unavailable. Glycosylation heterogeneity also provides challenges to NMR studies. E. coli expression systems are efficient for overexpressing perdeuterated and Ile (δ1), Leu, Val methyl-protonated protein samples, but are generally not successful for producing secreted eukaryotic proteins with native disulfide bonds.ResultsThe 33 kDa protein—Rhizopus chinensis lipase (RCL), an important industrial enzyme, was produced using both P. pastoris and E. coli BL21 trxB (DE3) systems. Samples produced from both systems exhibit identical native disulfide bond formation and similar 2D NMR spectra, indicating similar native protein folding. The yield of 13C, 15N-enriched r27RCL produced using P. pastoris was 1.7 times higher that obtained using E. coli, while the isotope-labeling efficiency was ~15 % lower. Protein samples produced in P. pastoris exhibit O-glycosylation, while the protein samples produced in E. coli were not glycosylated. The specific activity of r27RCL from P. pastoris was ~1.4 times higher than that produced in E. coli.ConclusionsThese data demonstrate efficient production of 2H, 13C, 15N-enriched, Ile (δ1), Leu, Val methyl-protonated eukaryotic protein r27RCL with native disulfides using the E. coli BL21 trxB (DE3) system. For certain NMR studies, particularly efforts for resonance assignments, structural studies, and dynamic studies, E. coli provides a cost-effective system for producing isotope-enriched RCL. It should also be potential for producing other 2H, 13C, 15N-enriched, Ile (δ1), Leu, Val methyl-protonated eukaryotic proteins with native disulfide bonds.

UTOPIA NMR: activating unexploited magnetization using interleaved low-gamma detection.

A growing number of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic studies are impaired by the limited information content provided by the standard set of experiments conventionally recorded. This is particularly true for studies of challenging biological systems including large, unstructured, membrane-embedded and/or paramagnetic proteins. Here we introduce the concept of unified time-optimized interleaved acquisition NMR (UTOPIA-NMR) for the unified acquisition of standard high-γ (e.g. (1)H) and low-γ (e.g. (13)C) detected experiments using a single receiver. Our aim is to activate the high level of polarization and information content distributed on low-γ nuclei without disturbing conventional magnetization transfer pathways. We show that using UTOPIA-NMR we are able to recover nearly all of the normally non-used magnetization without disturbing the standard experiments. In other words, additional spectra, that can significantly increase the NMR insights, are obtained for free. While we anticipate a broad range of possible applications we demonstrate for the soluble protein Bcl-xL (ca. 21kDa) and for OmpX in nanodiscs (ca. 160kDa) that UTOPIA-NMR is particularly useful for challenging protein systems including perdeuterated (membrane) proteins.

CH3-specific NMR assignment of alanine, isoleucine, leucine and valine methyl groups in high molecular weight proteins using a single sample.

A new strategy for the NMR assignment of aliphatic side-chains in large perdeuterated proteins is proposed. It involves an alternative isotopic labeling protocol, the use of an out-and-back (13)C-(13)C TOCSY experiment ((H)C-TOCSY-C-TOCSY-(C)H) and an optimized non-uniform sampling protocol. It has long been known that the non-linearity of an aliphatic spin-system (for example Ile, Val, or Leu) substantially compromises the efficiency of the TOCSY transfers. To permit the use of this efficient pulse scheme, a series of optimized precursors were designed to yield linear (13)C perdeuterated side-chains with a single protonated CH3 group in these three residues. These precursors were added to the culture medium for incorporation into expressed proteins. For Val and Leu residues, the topologically different spin-systems introduced for the pro-R and pro-S methyl groups enable stereospecific assignment. All CH3 can be simultaneously assigned on a single sample using a TOCSY experiment. It only requires the tuning of a mixing delay and is thus more versatile than the relayed COSY experiment. Enhanced resolution and sensi-tivity can be achieved by non-uniform sampling combined with the removal of the large JCC coupling by deconvolution prior to the processing by iterative soft thresholding. This strategy has been used on malate synthase G where a large percentage of the CH3 groups could be correlated directly up to the backbone Ca. It is anticipated that this robust combined strategy can be routinely applied to large proteins.

Asynchronous through-bond homonuclear isotropic mixing: application to carbon-carbon transfer in perdeuterated proteins under MAS.

Multiple-bond carbon-carbon homonuclear mixing is a hurdle in extensively deuterated proteins and under fast MAS due to the absence of an effective proton dipolar-coupling network. Such conditions are now commonly employed in solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Here, we introduce an isotropic homonuclear (13)C-(13)C through-bond mixing sequence, MOCCA, for the solid state. Even though applied under MAS, this scheme performs without rotor synchronization and thus does not pose the usual hurdles in terms of power dissipation for fast spinning. We compare its performance with existing homonuclear (13)C-(13)C mixing schemes using a perdeuterated and partially proton-backexchanged protein. Based on the analysis of side chain carbon-carbon correlations, we show that particularly MOCCA with standard 180-degree pulses and delays leading to non-rotor-synchronized spacing performs exceptionally well. This method provides high magnetization transfer efficiency for multiple-bond transfer in the aliphatic region compared with other tested mixing sequences. In addition, we show that this sequence can also be tailor-made for recoupling within a selected spectral region using band-selective pulses.

Production and characterization of recombinant perdeuterated cholesterol oxidase

Cholesterol oxidase (CO) is a FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide) containing enzyme that catalyzes the oxidization and isomerization of cholesterol. Studies directed toward elucidating the catalytic mechanism of CO will provide an important general understanding of Flavin-assisted redox catalysis. Hydrogen atoms play an important role in enzyme catalysis; however, they are not readily visualized in protein X-ray diffraction structures. Neutron crystallography is an ideal method for directly visualizing hydrogen positions at moderate resolutions because hydrogen and deuterium have comparable neutron scattering lengths to other heavy atoms present in proteins. The negative coherent and large incoherent scattering lengths of hydrogen atoms in neutron diffraction experiments can be circumvented by replacing hydrogen atoms with its isotope, deuterium. The perdeuterated form of CO was successfully expressed from minimal medium, purified, and crystallized. X-ray crystallographic structures of the enzyme in the perdeuterated and hydrogenated states confirm that there are no apparent structural differences between the two enzyme forms. Kinetic assays demonstrate that perdeuterated and hydrogenated enzymes are functionally identical. Together, structural and functional studies indicate that the perdeuterated protein is suitable for structural studies by neutron crystallography directed at understanding the role of hydrogen atoms in enzyme catalysis.

Binding site asymmetry in human transthyretin: insights from a joint neutron and X-ray crystallographic analysis using perdeuterated protein.

Human transthyretin has an intrinsic tendency to form amyloid fibrils and is heavily implicated in senile systemic amyloidosis. Here, detailed neutron structural studies of perdeuterated transthyretin are described. The analyses, which fully exploit the enhanced visibility of isotopically replaced hydrogen atoms, yield new information on the stability of the protein and the possible mechanisms of amyloid formation. Residue Ser117 may play a pivotal role in that a single water molecule is closely associated with the γ-hydrogen atoms in one of the binding pockets, and could be important in determining which of the two sites is available to the substrate. The hydrogen-bond network at the monomer-monomer interface is more extensive than that at the dimer-dimer interface. Additionally, the edge strands of the primary dimer are seen to be favourable for continuation of the β-sheet and the formation of an extended cross-β structure through sequential dimer couplings. It is argued that the precursor to fibril formation is the dimeric form of the protein.

Perdeuteration: Vital to visualising solvent in neutron crystallography?

Early neutron crystallography studies replaced hydrogen with deuterium by soaking the crystal in heavy water prior to data collection, which exchanged labile hydrogen atoms (OH, NH, and SH) and solvent molecules only. Carbon bonded hydrogen atoms were not replaced, and their negative scattering density resulted in cancellation in nuclear density maps with resolution worse than 1.8 Å. Furthermore complications arise due to partial exchange, where deuterium is present in some unit cells and hydrogen in others. More recently it has become possible to completely replace hydrogen with deuterium through expression in a deuterated medium, using facilities such as the Deuteration Laboratory (DLAB) in Grenoble. As this is a complex and expensive task, the question arises as to the importance of its use. As well as allowing the study of radically smaller crystals (<0.05mm3), it also has the possibility to avoid the cancellation problems discussed above. We have obtained data from high quality crystals of partially hydrogenated type III antifreeze protein, where methyl protonated valine and leucine residues were incorporated into the perdeuterated protein. This provides an excellent opportunity to assess the effects of negative scattering from hydrogen atoms not only on the visibility of neighbouring carbon atoms but also on water molecules in close vicinity. The observation of these cancellation effects gives a further reason to use full deuteration in neutron protein crystallography.