Solid State NMR Spectroscopy for Biopolymers: Principles and Applications

‘‘Biopolymers’’ are polymeric materials of biological origin, including globular, membrane, and fibrous proteins, polypeptides, nucleic acids, po- saccharides, lipids, etc. and their assembly, although preference to respe- ive subjects may be different among readers who are more interested in their biological significance or industrial and/or medical applications. Nevert- less, characterizing or revealing their secondary structure and dynamics may be an equally very important and useful issue for both kinds of readers. Special interest in revealing the 3D structure of globular proteins, nucleic acids, and peptides was aroused in relation to the currently active Structural Biology. X-ray crystallography and multidimensional solution NMR sp- troscopy have proved to be the standard and indispensable means for this purpose. There remain, however, several limitations to this end, if one intends to expand its scope further. This is because these approaches are not always straightforward to characterize fibrous or membrane proteins owing to extreme difficulty in crystallization in the former, and insufficient spectral resolution due to sparing solubility or increased effective molecular mass in the presence of surrounding lipid bilayers in the latter.

Solid State NMR Spectroscopy for Biopolymers

Principles and Applications

by Hazime Saitô, Isao Ando and Akira Naito

Unique and comprehensive coverage of solid state NMR, emphasising
secondary structure and dynamics in relation to biological function.

When considering the biological significance and industrial and medical applications of biopolymers, it is crucial to know details of their secondary structure, dynamics and assembly. The biopolymers include globular, membrane and fibrous proteins, polypeptides, nucleic acids, polysaccharides and lipids. Solid state NMR spectroscopy has proved to be the most suitable and unrivaled means for investigations of biopolymers. The major advantage of solid state NMR spectroscopy is that the resulting line widths can be manipulated experimentally and are not influenced by motional fluctuation of proteins under consideration as a whole.

Solid State NMR Spectroscopy for Biopolymers: Principles and Applications provides a comprehensive account on how the conformation and dynamics of such biopolymers can be revealed by solid state NMR spectroscopy. Special efforts have been made towards the historical and chronological consequences of a variety of applications and the dynamic aspects of the biopolymer system. In particular, the authors emphasise how important it is to record the most simple DD-MAS (one pulse excitation with high power decoupling) as a mean of locating very flexible portions of membrane proteins and membrane associated peptides. The authors also demonstrate that dynamic features of membrane proteins with a timescale of fast (10⁸ Hz) and intermediate (10⁴ -10⁵ Hz) fluctuation motions can be revealed easily by specific suppression of peaks.

This book is an invaluable resource for biophysicists, biochemists and chemists, including NMR spectroscopists, structural biologists, and polymerscientists. The book provides an introduction suitable for graduate students as well as for research scientists, including those working in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.