Structure determination of membrane proteins by NMR spectroscopy

In proton NMR spectroscopy, primary amines and secondary amines showcase their N–H protons as a broad signal in the chemical shift range between δ 0.5 and 5 ppm. The exact position in this range depends on several factors, including sample concentration, hydrogen bonding, and the type of solvent used. Since amine protons undergo fast proton exchange in solution, the protons are labile and therefore do not participate in any splitting with adjacent protons. Thus, the observed peak is broad and...

The axial and equatorial protons in cyclohexane can be distinguished by performing a variable-temperature NMR experiment. In this process, except for one proton, the remaining eleven protons are replaced by deuterium. The deuterium substitution avoids the possible peak splitting caused by the spin-spin coupling between the adjacent protons. The remaining proton flips between the axial and equatorial positions.

At room temperature, the chair conformer of cyclohexane undergoes rapid ring flipping between two equivalent chair conformers at a rate of approximately 105 times per second. These two chair conformers are in equilibrium. The rapid ring flipping results in the interconversion of the axial proton to an equatorial proton and an equatorial to the axial proton. Such interconversions are too rapid and cannot be detected on the NMR timescale. Hence, the NMR spectrometer cannot distinguish between the...

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a very valuable analytical technique for researchers. It has been used for more than 50 years as an analytical tool. F. Bloch and E. Purcell formulated NMR in 1946 and won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics  for their work. Biological macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and organic molecules including pharmaceutical compounds, can be studied using this versatile tool that exploits the magnetic properties of certain nuclei.
The...

The intensity of a signal, which can be represented by the area under the peak, depends on the number of protons contributing to that signal. The area under each peak is shown as a vertical line called an integral, with the integral value listed under it, as seen in the proton NMR spectrum of benzyl acetate. Each integral value is divided by the smallest integral value to obtain the ratio of the number of protons producing each signal. The ratio reveals the relative number of protons and not...

The 1D NMR spectrum of large and complex molecules like natural products has complicated splitting patterns and overlapping signals, which can be easily interpreted using 2-dimensional (2D) NMR. Unlike 1D NMR, 2D NMR has two frequency axes that provide the coupling information between the nucleus A and nucleus B in a molecule. The process from which 2D spectra are obtained has four steps.
The first step is the preparation period, during which nucleus A is excited with a radiofrequency pulse.