1. /81 1 3D Structure calculation

2. Structure Calculation In general some form of restrained Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation is used to obtain a set of low energy structures that satisfy the NMR restraints. Procedure: Create a starting structure from sequence Optimization of the structure MD calculation with restraints from NMR Repeat this several times Selection of 'final' structures

3. Starting structure and optimization The amino acid sequence of the protein is used by the user- interface (Builder) of the modelling program to create an 'extended' starting structure. Optimization is then done by Energy Minimization (Molecular Mechanics).

4. Optimized starting structure Starting structure: extended chain, often in a box of water molecules

5. Molecular Dynamics Simulation A Molecular Dynamics Simulation is a computer calculation of the movement of the atoms in a molecule by solving Newton's equation of motion for all atoms i: (m i mass, r i position, F i force)

6. The force F i is calculated from tabulated potential energy terms V (the force field) and the current position r i : The empirical potential energy function V contains terms like: The Force Field

7. Potential Energy Function Potential Energy Function for Bond Length l l0l0 l E Bond stretching (vibrational motion)

8. The NMR Restraints In addition to potentials of the force field: Non-physical restraints for distances and dihedral angles (and others) from NMR These are extra terms in the potential energy function V Restrained MD

9. NOE distance restraints Restraints for upper ( u ij ) and lower ( l ij ) bounds for the distance r ij :

10. Molecular Dynamics Typical time-scales for molecular motions Time scaleAmplitudeDescription short femto to pico 10 -15 - 10 -12 s 0.001 - 0.1 Å- bond stretching, angle bending - dihedral motion medium pico to nano 10 -12 - 10 -9 s 0.1 - 10 Å- unhindered surface side chain motion - loop motion, collective motion long nano to micro second 10 -9 - 10 -6 s 1 - 100 Å- folding in small peptides - helix coil transition micro to seconds 10 -6 - 10 -1 s 10 - 100 Å- protein folding

11. Local or Global Energy minimum Structural landscape contains peaks and valleys. Energy Minimization protocol always moves “down hill”. Difficult to cross over local maxima to get to global minimum.

12. Therefore: Simulated Annealing Often used with Restrained MD Potentials are 'down-scaled' in the beginning Higher degree of freedom ('sampling a bigger conformational space') In later steps the potentials are slowly brought to their final values. This is like first heating up the molecule and then cooling it down in small steps.

13. Family of Structures Usually a large number of calculations is done in parallel resulting in a family of structures, from which an average structure can be calulated or the one with the minimum energy selected. Family of structures of the protein crambin Family of structures of the protein crambin

14. Final 3D structures of biomolecules Ribbon presentation

15. Summary: Restrained Molecular Dynamics Choose a force-field Add constraints from NMR data Starting coordinates of all atoms (starting structure) Starting velocities of all atoms ('random seed numbers', Maxwell Boltzmann distribution) Solve Newton's classical equation of motion for very small steps (few femto-seconds) Calculate new coordinates, forces and velocities Repeat the last two steps to find structure with lowest energy

16. /81 16 Increasing the NMR size limit

17. /81 17 Advances in hardware & techniques Higher magnetic field strength  Increased resolution & sensitivity  Maximum now 1000 MHz (1 GHz) Cryoprobes  Cooling of probe coil with He gas (~20 K)  Reduces thermal noise generated by electric circuits  Increase of sensitivity by factor of 3-4 Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)  Transferring spin polarization from electrons to nuclei  Requires saturation of electron spins by Gyrotron irradiation  So far only for solid-state NMR

18. /81 18 Protein deuteration Reduce 1 H- 1 H dipolar interactions  γ H / γ D ~ 1/6.5  Longer T 2 → sharper lines 30 kDa 15 N 15 N, 90% 2 H Garret DS et al. Biochemistry (1997)

19. /81 19 TROSY Transverse optimized spectroscopy  Lines from 1 H- 15 N multiplet have differential relaxation ➡ Interference between dipole-dipole and CSA relaxation  TROSY only selects the narrow, slowly relaxing line  TROSY effect more pronounced at high magnetic field-strength ➡ CSA is field-dependent 40 kDa @ 750 MHz Pervushin K et al. PNAS (1997)

20. /81 20 Relaxation & Dynamics

21. /81 21 NMR time scales

22. /81 22 Local fluctuating magnetic fields B loc (t) = B loc [iso] + B loc (t)[aniso]  Isotropic part is not time dependent ➡ chemical shift ➡ J-coupling  Only the anisotropic part is time dependent ➡ chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) ➡ dipolar interaction (DD) r B0B0 anisotropic interactions 13 C CSAdipole-dipole

23. /81 23 Components of the local field B loc (t) xy components  Transverse fluctuating fields  Non-adiabatic: exchange of energy between the spin-system and the lattice [environment] α β non-adiabatic transitions T 1 relaxation transitions between states restore Boltzman equilibrium α β

24. /81 24 Components of the local field B loc (t) z component  Longitudinal fluctuating fields  Adiabatic: no exchange of energy between the spin-system and the lattice  Effective field along z-axis varies ➡ frequency ω 0 varies adiabatic variations of ω 0 B0B0 B loc (t)e z z-component: frequency ω 0 varies due to local changes in B 0 xy-component: transitions between states reduce phase coherence T 2 relaxation

25. /81 25 Spectral density function Frequencies of the random fluctuating fields  Spectral density function J(ω) is the Fourier transform of the correlation function C( τ ). It gives the probability of finding a component of the fluctuation at frequency ω.  The component of J(ω) at the Larmor frequency ω 0 can induce T 1 relaxation transitions. J(0) is important for T 2. J(ω) ω 5 ns 10 ns 20 ns τcτc

26. /81 Molecular tumbling and relaxation fast tumbling small molecule slow tumbling large protein Since the integral of J(ω) over all frequencies is constant, slow tumbling (large molecule) gives more contributions at low frequencies, fast tumbling (small molecule) more at higher frequencies. J(ω) Logarithmic scale

27. /81 Molecular tumbling and relaxation slow tumbling large protein Inverse line width T2 ~ 1/Δ fast tumbling small molecule  c [s] correlation time Proteins >10kDa

28. /81 Effects of relaxation on protein NMR spectra slower tumbling in solution  fast decay of NMR signal  broad lines larger number of signals  more signal overlap  c 4 ns MW 8 kDa 8 ns 16 kDa 12 ns 24 kDa 25 ns 50 kDa linewidth Δν 1/2 = 1/πT 2

29. /81 29 Protein backbone dynamics 15 N relaxation to describe ps-ns dynamics  R 1 : longitudinal relaxation rate  R 2 : transversal relaxation rate  hetero-nuclear NOE: { 1 H}- 15 N Measured as a 2D 1 H- 15 N spectrum  R 1,R 2 : Repeat experiment several times with increasing relaxation-delay  Fit the signal intensity as a function of the relaxation delay ➡ I 0. exp(-Rt)  { 1 H}- 15 N NOE: Intensity ratio between saturated and non- saturated experiment

30. /81 30 15 N relaxation rates R2R2 2H z N y NxNx 15 N chemical shift evolution CPMG relaxation delay -N z 15 N chemical shift evolution NxNx Relaxation delay R1R1

31. /81 31

32. /81 32 Relaxation rates

33. /81 33 NMR time scales

34. /81 34 Conformational exchange

35. /81 35 Conformational exchange

36. /81 36 Measuring k ex with CPMG Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill  Refocussing the 15 N chemical shift when measuring the 15 N R 2 relaxation rate Relaxation dispersion  Determine the R 2,eff as a function of CPMG frequency (i.e. frequency of 180° pulses)

37. /81 37 Relaxation dispersion Can provide information about “invisible” state  Fitting of dispersion curves at more than one magnetic field ➡ Time-scale of the interconversion (k ex =k A +k B ) ➡ Populations of the two states (p A, p B ) ➡ Chemical shift difference (Δω = ω A -ω B )

38. /81 38 Wide range of time scales Fluctuating magnetic fields Correlation function, spectral density function rotational correlation time (ns) fast time scale (ps-ns): flexibility (fast backbone motions) from 15 N relaxation and 1 H- 15 N NOE slow time scale (μs-ms): conformational exchange from relaxation dispersion CPMG Key concepts relaxation