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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Atomic Scale Structural Studies of Macromolecular Assemblies by Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Published on: September 17, 2017
Labeling strategies for 13C-detected aligned-sample solid-state NMR of proteins
Fabian V Filipp1, Neeraj Sinha, Lena Jairam
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0307, USA.
None:
(13)C-detected solid-state NMR experiments have substantially higher sensitivity than the corresponding (15)N-detected experiments on stationary, aligned samples of isotopically labeled proteins. Several methods for tailoring the isotopic labeling are described that result in spatially isolated (13)C sites so that dipole-dipole couplings among the (13)C are minimized, thus eliminating the need for homonuclear (13)C-(13)C decoupling in either indirect or direct dimensions of one- or multi-dimensional NMR experiments that employ (13)C detection. The optimal percentage for random fractional (13)C labeling is between 25% and 35%. Specifically labeled glycerol and glucose can be used at the carbon sources to tailor the isotopic labeling, and the choice depends on the resonances of interest for a particular study. For investigations of the protein backbone, growth of the bacteria on [2-(13)C]-glucose-containing media was found to be most effective.
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