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Updated: Aug 16, 2026
Contrast-Matching Detergent in Small-Angle Neutron Scattering Experiments for Membrane Protein Structural Analysis and Ab Initio Modeling
Published on: October 21, 2018
How to prepare membrane proteins for solid-state NMR: A case study on the alpha-helical integral membrane protein
Mark Lorch1, Salem Faham, Christoph Kaiser
1Centre for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance and Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie, J. W. Goethe Universität, Marie-Curie-Strasse 9, 60439 Frankfurt, Germany.
Abstract:
Several studies have demonstrated that it is viable to use microcrystalline preparations of water-soluble proteins as samples in solid-state NMR experiments [1-5]. Here, we investigate whether this approach holds any potential for studying water-insoluble systems, namely membrane proteins. For this case study, we have prepared proteoliposomes and small crystals of the alpha-helical membrane-protein diacylglycerol kinase (DGK). Preparations were characterised by 13C- and 15N-cross-polarization magic-angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR. It was found that crystalline samples produce better-resolved spectra than proteoliposomes. This makes them more suitable for structural NMR experiments. However, reconstitution is the method of choice for biophysical studies by solid-state NMR. In addition, we discuss the identification of lipids bound to membrane-protein crystals by 31P-MAS NMR.
