Elucidation of residue-level structure and dynamics of polypeptides via isotope-edited infrared spectroscopy

Infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool for analyzing the structure of proteins and peptides. The amide I band is particularly sensitive to the strength and position of the hydrogen bonds that define secondary structure as well as dipole-dipole interactions that are affected by the geometry of the peptide backbone. The introduction of a single (13)C-labeled carbonyl into a peptide backbone results in a resolvable shoulder to the main amide I band, which can be analyzed as a separate peak. Thus, site-specific structural information can be obtained by sequential, systematic labeling of the backbone. This method of isotope-edited infrared spectroscopy is a tool for obtaining medium-resolution information about the backbone conformation and dynamics. This tool has been used to dissect the conformation and dynamics of alpha helices and amyloid aggregates, where the versatility of possible sampling with infrared spectroscopy is well-suited for studies of large-protein aggregates.