Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.132, No.17, 5940-5940, 2010
Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy of Oriented Membrane Polypeptides at 100 K with Signal Enhancement by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization
Oriented membrane samples encompassing the biradical bTbK and a transmembrane peptide carrying a single N-15 labeled residue have been prepared on polymer sheets with sample geometries that fit into a 3.2 mm MAS rotor. The proton-decoupled N-15 cross-polarization spectra of the peptide were characterized by a single line at fast magic angle spinning speeds of similar to 8 kHz. Irradiating these samples with p-waves resulted in Dynamic Nuclear Polarization and a concomitant 18-fold signal enhancement which considerably shortened the NMR acquisition times. Furthermore, the sideband patterns of magic angle oriented sample spinning (MAOSS) solid-state NMR spectra at slow spinning speeds (similar to 1 kHz) are indicative that the lipids and peptides form well-oriented bilayers at 100 K despite the narrow inner diameter of the rotor (2.2 mm) and the presence of considerable amounts of biradicals. The DNP signal enhancement opens up enhanced possibilities for multidimensional solid-state NMR investigation of oriented membrane polypeptides.