NMR studies of metalloproteins

Abstract

Metalloproteins represent a large share of the proteomes, with the intrinsic metal ions providing catalytic, regulatory, and structural roles critical to protein functions. Structural characterization of metalloproteins and identification of metal coordination features including numbers and types of ligands and metal-ligand geometry, and mapping the structural and dynamic changes upon metal binding are significant for understanding biological functions of metalloproteins. NMR spectroscopy has long been used as an invaluable tool for structure and dynamic studies of macromolecules. Here we focus on the application of NMR spectroscopy in characterization of metalloproteins, including structural studies and identification of metal coordination spheres by hetero-/homo-nuclear metal NMR spectroscopy. Paramagnetic NMR as well as (13)C directly detected protonless NMR spectroscopy will also be addressed for application to paramagnetic metalloproteins. Moreover, these techniques offer great potential for studies of other non-metal binding macromolecules.