Selective correlations between aliphatic 13C nuclei in protein solid-state NMR

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a potent tool for studying the structures and dynamics of insoluble proteins. It starts with signal assignment through multi-dimensional correlation experiments, where the aliphatic ¹³Cα-¹³Cβ correlation is indispensable for identifying specific residues. However, developing efficient methods for achieving this correlation is a challenge in solid-state NMR. We present a simple band-selective zero-quantum (ZQ) recoupling method, named POST-C4₁₆¹ (PC4), which enhances ¹³Cα-¹³Cβ correlations under moderate magic-angle spinning (MAS) conditions. PC4 requires minimal ¹³C radio-frequency (RF) field and proton decoupling, exhibits high stability against RF variations, and achieves superior efficiency. Comparative tests on various samples, including the formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (fMLF) tripeptide, microcrystalline β1 immunoglobulin binding domain of protein G (GB1), and membrane protein of mechanosensitive channel of large conductance from Methanosarcina acetivorans (MaMscL), demonstrate that PC4 selectively enhances ¹³Cα-¹³Cβ correlations by up to 50 % while suppressing unwanted correlations, as compared to the popular dipolar-assisted rotational resonance (DARR). It has addressed the long-standing need for selective ¹³C–¹³C correlation methods. We anticipate that this simple but efficient PC4 method will have immediate applications in structural biology by solid-state NMR.