James M. Gibson1, Pat Loria2, and James G. Kempf1. (1) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, (2) yale university, new haven, CT
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful probe of relationships between biomolecular function and intramolecular motions. Motions on the μs-ms timescale often coordinate with catalytic events and can be characterized by 15N spin relaxation using the so-called relaxation-compensated (rc) class of Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) experiments. These measure motional rates from ~100 to 3,000 s-1 by combining results from the original rcCPMG [Loria, et al, JACS (1999)] with those from related Even-Echo (EE) and Hahn-Echo (HE) experiments [Millet, et al, JACS (2000)]. Each measures the 15N transverse relaxation rate (R2) as a function of the repetition rate (νCP) of 15N 180o pulses during a CPMG relaxation period. Motional rates near νCP can yield variation of R2 with νCP, and fits to such profiles reveal the rates and populations of conformational equilibria. Accurate measurement depends on several experimental factors, notably including the suppression of a secondary relaxation effect: cross-relaxation due to interference between the 15N chemical-shift anisotropy (CSA) and 1H-15N dipole-dipole (DD) interaction. The three experiments are each optimized for CSA-DD suppression at different νCP values. However, detailed comparison of their suppression quality is lacking, and the validity of their combined application is thus open to question. We determined variations in R2 collected from these experiments at matching νCP values using the enzyme RNase A. Differences in R2 observed between experiment pairs are consistent with the predicted quality of CSA-DD suppression and are acceptable for subsequent determination of the chemical parameters of exchange.
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