Homonuclear J-couplings and heteronuclear structural constraints

Abstract

In magic angle spinning (MAS) experiments involving uniformly ¹³C/¹⁵N labeled proteins, ¹³C–¹³C and ¹³C–¹⁵N dipolar recoupling experiments are now routinely used to measure direct dipole–dipole couplings that constrain distances and torsion angles and determine molecular structures. When the distances are short (<4 Å), the direct couplings dominate the evolution of the spin system, and the ¹³C–¹³C and ¹³C–¹⁵N J-couplings (scalar couplings) are ignored. However, for structurally interesting >4 Å distances, the dipolar and J-couplings are generally of comparable magnitude, and the variation in J must be included in order to optimize the precision of the experiment. This problem is circumvented in cases with well resolved spectra by using frequency-selective dipolar recoupling methods where the effects of J-couplings are refocused. However, for larger molecules with more spectral crowding, the requisite pulse length to achieve selectivity becomes long and leads to unacceptable sensitivity losses during the pulse or the spectral overlap precludes selective excitation. In this paper, we address this problem with two approaches aimed at facilitating higher precision internuclear distance measurements in systems that are not fully resolved. Namely, (1) we describe an approach for high precision measurements of specific J-couplings using the in-phase anti-phase (IPAP) sequence which is integrated into a non-selective dipolar recoupling technique and (2) we utilize the measured J-couplings to implement a double quantum filter experiment capable of providing the resolution necessary for frequency selective dipolar recoupling techniques without resorting to multidimensional spectroscopy. We illustrate these methods using a 7-peptide segment from the amyloidogenic Sup-35p protein, U-¹³C/¹⁵N-GNNQQNY, where we have measured 25 of the 27 possible one bond ¹³C–¹³C J-couplings.