title: Divide and conquer is always best: sensitivity of methyl correlation experiments.
abstract: The HMCM [CG]CBCA experiment (Tugarinov and Kay in J Am Chem Soc 125:13868-13878, 2003) correlates methyl carbon and proton shifts to Cγ, Cβ, and Cα resonances for the purpose of resonance assignments. The relative sensitivity of the HMCM[CG]CBCA sequence experiment is compared to a divide-and-conquer approach to assess whether it is best to collect all of the methyl correlations at once, or to perform separate experiments for each correlation. A straightforward analysis shows that the divide-and-conquer approach is intrinsically more sensitive, and should always be used to obtain methyl-Cγ, Cβ, and Cα correlations. The improvement in signal-to-noise associated with separate experiments is illustrated by the detection of methyl-aliphatic correlations in a 65 kDa protein-DNA complex.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Kaustubh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jen-Jacobson
authors.forename: Gordon S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Rule
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D007930:Leucine / Q000737:chemistry; D008745:Methylation; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D004247:DNA; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific; C027440:GATATC-specific type II deoxyribonucleases; D007930:Leucine