title: Relaxation rates of degenerate 1H transitions in methyl groups of proteins as reporters of side-chain dynamics.
abstract: Experiments for quantifying the amplitudes of motion of methyl-containing side chains are presented that exploit the rich network of cross-correlated spin relaxation interactions between intra-methyl dipoles in highly deuterated, selectively 13CH2D- or 13CH3-labeled proteins. In particular, the experiments measure spin relaxation rates of degenerate 1H transitions in methyl groups that, for high-molecular-weight proteins, are very simply related to methyl three-fold symmetry axis order parameters. The methodology presented is applied to studies of dynamics in a pair of systems, including the 7.5-kDa protein L and the 82-kDa enzyme malate synthase G. Good agreement between 1H- and 2H-derived measures of side-chain order are obtained on highly deuterated proteins with correlation times exceeding approximately 10 ns (correlation coefficients greater than 0.95). Although 2H- and 13C-derived measures of side-chain dynamics are still preferred, the present work underscores the potential of using 1H relaxation for semiquantitative estimates of methyl side-chain flexibility, while the high level of consistency between the different spin probes of motion establishes the reliability of the dynamics parameters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8.
authors.forename: Vitali
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tugarinov
authors.forename: Lewis E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Kay
mesh_terms: D003903:Deuterium; D008745:Methylation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular / Q000379:methods*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins; D003903:Deuterium