For over a decade, we have been continuing to develop the stereo-array isotope labeling (SAIL) method [1] to elucidate the structures and dynamics of supramolecular proteins and protein complexes. So far, we have successfully observed and assigned 1H-13C NMR signals for many of the aromatic ring and aliphatic moieties in the 82 kDa malate synthase G (MSG), by using amino acids possessing various relaxation optimized isotope labeling patterns [2,3]. The concomitant development of cost-effective cellular expression systems using various amino acid auxotrophic E. coli strains now allows the preparation of proteins with residues selectively labeled with ro-SAIL amino acids, and otherwise fully deuterated [4]. These advances have enabled us to routinely investigate molecular interactions and dynamics for biologically interesting proteins associated with bacterial motor machinery, signal transduction, and antibody-antigen complexes, which are regarded as difficult targets for the conventional NMR methodologies. During the past few years, we have further improved the relaxation properties of the ro-SAIL amino acids by using “1H-12C” instead of “1H-13C”. By sacrificing the 13C-dimension with this labeling approach, the sparsely distributed remaining protons of the “1H-12C” ro-SAIL amino acid residues gave surprisingly well-resolved, highly sensitive 1H-NMR signals, even for the 468 kDa aminopeptidase, TET2 12-mer. Some of our future prospects for this new ro-SAIL approach will also be presented.
References
[1] Kainosho M, et al. (2006) Optimal isotope labelling for NMR protein structure determinations, Nature 440:52-57.
[2] Kainosho M, et al. (2018) Perspective: Next Generation Isotope-Aided Methods for Protein NMR Spectroscopy, J Biomol NMR 71: 119-127.
[3] Miyanoiri Y, et al. (2020) Recent developments in isotope-aided NMR methods for supramolecular protein complexes-SAIL aromatic TROSY, BBA-General Subjects 1864:12439.
[4] Miyanoiri Y, et al. (2016) Highly efficient residue-selective labeling with isotope-labeled Ile, Leu, and Val using a new auxotrophic E-coli strain, J Biomol NMR, 65, 109-119.