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Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Atomic Scale Structural Studies of Macromolecular Assemblies by Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Published on: September 17, 2017
Application of Solution NMR to Structural Studies on α-Helical Integral Membrane Proteins
Dae-Won Sim1, Zhenwei Lu2, Hyung-Sik Won3
1Department of Biotechnology, College of Biomedical and Health Science, Konkuk University, Chungbuk 27478, Korea. konapapa@nate.com.
Abstract:
A large portion of proteins in living organisms are membrane proteins which play critical roles in the biology of the cell, from maintenance of the biological membrane integrity to communication of cells with their surroundings. To understand their mechanism of action, structural information is essential. Nevertheless, structure determination of transmembrane proteins is still a challenging area, even though recently the number of deposited structures of membrane proteins in the PDB has rapidly increased thanks to the efforts using X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, and solid and solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology. Among these technologies, solution NMR is a powerful tool for studying protein-protein, protein-ligand interactions and protein dynamics at a wide range of time scales as well as structure determination of membrane proteins. This review provides general and useful guideline for membrane protein sample preparation and the choice of membrane-mimetic media, which are the key step for successful structural analysis. Furthermore, this review provides an opportunity to look at recent applications of solution NMR to structural studies on α-helical membrane proteins through some success stories.
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