[Study of the conformational mobility of globular proteins by pulse methods of NMR]

The protein spin-echo decay and recovery of longitudinal magnetization were studied in seven globular proteins: cytochrome C, ribonuclease, lysozyme, DNA, hemoglobin, serum albumin and gamma-globulin in D2O solutions. For comparison the Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) protons in D2O solutions were also investigated. The spin-echo decay of all 7 proteins can be separated into three components: a slowly decaying component with an amplitude of about 10% of the amplitude of the total signal, intermediately and fastly decaying components, the two latter being comparable in amplitudes. Longitudinal relaxation is more simple in character. The value of T2 of the protons responsible for the fastly decaying components in linearly dependent on the molecular weight of the protein, a fact indicating that the regions of the proteins with a "rigid" structure can be responsible for this component. The intermediate component, whose contribution increases with temperature, was ascribed to the mobile regions of the protein, and the slowly decaying component to the mobile protein side chains. Weak dependence of T1 on the protein molecular weight and some other obtained data give additional evidence for the presence of motion within macromolecules. The peculiarities of this motion is in good correspondence with the notion about the existence of the segmental motion of the polypeptide chain (conformational mobility of the protein). In contrast to proteins the spin-echo decay of TMV lacked the slow component and the "solid" echo signal was observed which indicates the existence of a "rigid" structure in the macromolecules of the virus.