RDC derived protein backbone resonance assignment using fragment assembly

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RDC derived protein backbone resonance assignment using fragment assembly


Abstract Experimental residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) in combination with structural models have the potential for accelerating the protein backbone resonance assignment process because RDCs can be measured accurately and interpreted quantitatively. However, this application has been limited due to the need for very high-resolution structural templates. Here, we introduce a new approach to resonance assignment based on optimal agreement between the experimental and calculated RDCs from a structural template that contains all assignable residues. To overcome the inherent computational complexity of such a global search, we have adopted an efficient two-stage search algorithm and included connectivity data from conventional assignment experiments. In the first stage, a list of strings of resonances (CA-links) is generated via exhaustive searches for short segments of sequentially connected residues in a protein (local templates), and then ranked by the agreement of the experimental 13Cα chemical shifts and 15N-1H RDCs to the predicted values for each local template. In the second stage, the top CA-links for different local templates in stage I are combinatorially connected to produce CA-links for all assignable residues. The resulting CA-links are ranked for resonance assignment according to their measured RDCs and predicted values from a tertiary structure. Since the final RDC ranking of CA-links includes all assignable residues and the assignment is derived from a â??global minimumâ??, our approach is far less reliant on the quality of experimental data and structural templates. The present approach is validated with the assignments of several proteins, including a 42 kDa maltose binding protein (MBP) using RDCs and structural templates of varying quality. Since backbone resonance assignment is an essential first step for most of biomolecular NMR applications and is often a bottleneck for large systems, we expect that this new approach will improve the efficiency of the assignment process for small and medium size proteins and will extend the size limits assignable by current methods for proteins with structural models.

• Content Type Journal Article
• DOI 10.1007/s10858-010-9467-z
• Authors
  • Xingsheng Wang, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
  • Brian Tash, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
  • John M. Flanagan, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
  • Fang Tian, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA

• • Journal Journal of Biomolecular NMR
  • Online ISSN 1573-5001
  • Print ISSN 0925-2738

Source: Journal of Biomolecular NMR