Amino acid type selective isotope labelling of the multidrug ABC transporter LmrA for solid-state NMR studies

The ABC transporter LmrA in Lactococcus lactis confers resistance to a wide range of antibiotics and cytotoxic drugs and is a functional homologue of P-glycoprotein. Recently, solid-state NMR methods have shown potential for structural- and non-perturbing, site directed functional studies. These experiments require isotopic labelling of selected sites. We have developed a strategy to produce large quantities of selectively labelled LmrA reconstituted at a high density in lipid membranes. This makes the 64 kDa integral membrane protein LmrA and therefore the ABC transporter superfamily accessible to NMR analysis.