Improving 3D structure prediction from chemical shift data

Gijs van der Schot1, Zaiyong Zhang, Robert Vernon

  • 1Computational Structural Biology, Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research, Faculty of Science-Chemistry, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

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The position of the absorption signal of a sample is reported relative to the position of the signal of tetramethylsilane (TMS), which is added as an internal reference while recording spectra. The difference between the absorption frequencies of the sample and TMS (in Hz) is divided by the spectrometer operating frequency (in MHz) to obtain a dimensionless quantity called the chemical shift. It is reported on the δ (delta) scale and expressed in parts per million.
For instance, the proton...
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When proton-coupled carbon-13 spectra are simplified by a broadband proton decoupling technique, structural information about the coupled protons is lost. Distortionless enhancement by polarization transfer (DEPT) is a technique that provides information on the number of hydrogens attached to each carbon in a molecule. While the DEPT experiment utilizes complex pulse sequences, the pulse delay and flip angle are specifically manipulated. The resulting signals have different phases depending on...
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In an NMR sample, precise measurement of the absolute absorption frequencies of nuclei is difficult. A standard internal reference compound is added, and the frequency difference between the reference signal and sample signals is measured.
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The protons in unsubstituted alkanes are strongly shielded with chemical shifts below 1.8 ppm. Methine, methylene, and methyl protons appear at approximately 1.7, 1.2 and 0.7 ppm, while the proton signal from methane appears at 0.23 ppm. An electronegative substituent, such as chlorine, withdraws the electron density from the protons, increasing their chemical shift. Progressive substitution of the hydrogens in methane by chlorine shifts the proton signals increasingly downfield, to 3.05 ppm in...
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Spin systems where the difference in chemical shifts of the coupled nuclei is greater than ten times J are called first-order spin systems. These nuclei are weakly coupled, and their chemical shifts and coupling constant can generally be estimated from the well-separated signals in the spectrum.
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