Surface Binding of TOTAPOL Assists Structural Investigations of Amyloid Fibrils by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization NMR Spectroscopy.

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) NMR can enhance sensitivity but often comes at the price of a substantial loss of resolution. Two major factors affect spectral quality: low-temperature heterogeneous line broadening and paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) effects. Investigations by NMR spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), and EPR revealed a new substantial affinity of TOTAPOL to amyloid surfaces, very similar to that shown by the fluorescent dye thioflavin-T (ThT). As a consequence, DNP spectra with remarkably good resolution and still reasonable enhancement could be obtained at very low TOTAPOL concentrations, typically 400 times lower than commonly employed. These spectra yielded several long-range constraints that were difficult to obtain without DNP. Our findings open up new strategies for structural studies with DNP NMR spectroscopy on amyloids that can bind the biradical with affinity similar to that shown towards ThT.

Solid-state NMR Study of the YadA Membrane-Anchor Domain in the Bacterial Outer Membrane.

MAS-NMR was used to study the structure and dynamics at ambient temperatures of the membrane-anchor domain of YadA (YadA-M) in a pellet of the outer membrane of E. coli in which it was expressed. YadA is an adhesin from the pathogen Yersinia enterocolitica that is involved in interactions with the host cell, and it is a model protein for studying the autotransport process. Existing assignments were sucessfully transferred to a large part of the YadA-M protein in the E. coli lipid environment by using (13) C-(13) C DARR and PDSD spectra at different mixing times. The chemical shifts in most regions of YadA-M are unchanged relative to those in microcrystalline YadA-M preparations from which a structure has previously been solved, including the ASSA region that is proposed to be involved in transition-state hairpin formation for transport of the soluble domain. Comparisons of the dynamics between the microcrystalline and membrane-embedded samples indicate greater flexibility of the ASSA region in the outer-membrane preparation at physiological temperatures. This study will pave the way towards MAS-NMR structure determination of membrane proteins, and a better understanding of functionally important dynamic residues in native membrane environments.