Significance This work presents a technique for dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR studies of complex proteins and biological assemblies. The sequential side-chain correlation approach streamlines the site-specific assignment of NMR peaks in multidimensional spectra, a critical step in determining structural information such as distances. When combined with DNP enhancement, fast MAS, and nonuniform sampling, this technique allows for faster data acquisition than previously possible. Applied to the intact Pf1 bacteriophage, sequential side-chain correlation spectra have enabled a virtually complete assignment using DNP data alone. These assignments shed insight into the chemical shift and linewidth changes associated with cryogenic temperatures. Our data point to hydration as a key variable influencing these parameters.

Solid-state NMR spectra, including dynamic nuclear polarization enhanced 400 MHz spectra acquired at 100 K, as well as non-DNP spectra at a variety of field strengths and at temperatures in the range 213-243 K, have allowed the assignment of the (13)C and (15)N resonances of the unusual DNA structure in the Pf1 virion. The (13)C chemical shifts of C3' and C5', considered to be key reporters of deoxyribose conformation, fall near or beyond the edges of their respective ranges in available databases. The (13)C and (15)N chemical shifts of the DNA bases have above-average values for AC4, AC5, CC5, TC2, and TC5, and below average values for AC8, GC8, and GN2, pointing to an absence of Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding, yet the presence of some type of aromatic ring interaction. Crosspeaks between Tyr40 of the coat protein and several DNA atoms suggest that Tyr40 is involved in this ring interaction. In addition, these crosspeak resonances and several deoxyribose resonances are multiply split, presumably through the effects of ordered but differing interactions between capsid protein subunits and each type of nucleotide in each of the two DNA strands. Overall, these observations characterize and support the DNA model proposed by Liu and Day and refined by Tsuboi et al., which calls for the most highly stretched and twisted naturally occurring DNA yet encountered.

Magic angle spinning solid-state NMR has been used to study the structural changes in the Pf1 filamentous bacteriophage, which occur near 10 °C. Comparisons of NMR spectra recorded above and below 10 °C reveal reversible perturbations in many NMR chemical shifts, most of which are assigned to atoms of hydrophobic side chains of the 46-residue subunit. The changes mainly involve groups located in patches on the interfaces between neighboring capsid subunits. The observations show that the transition adjusts the hydrophobic interfaces between fairly rigid subunits. The low temperature form has been generally more amenable to structure determination; spin diffusion experiments on this form revealed unambiguous contacts between side chains of neighboring subunits. These contacts are important constraints for structure modeling.

Uncontrolled fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling can lead to human diseases, necessitating multiple layers of self-regulatory control mechanisms to keep its activity in check. Herein, we demonstrate that FGF9 and FGF20 ligands undergo a reversible homodimerization, occluding their key receptor binding sites. To test the role of dimerization in ligand autoinhibition, we introduced structure-based mutations into the dimer interfaces of FGF9 and FGF20. The mutations weakened the ability of the ligands to dimerize, effectively increasing the concentrations of monomeric ligands capable of binding and activating their cognate FGF receptor in vitro and in living cells. Interestingly, the monomeric ligands exhibit reduced heparin binding, resulting in their increased radii of heparan sulfate-dependent diffusion and biologic action, as evidenced by the wider dilation area of ex vivo lung cultures in response to implanted mutant FGF9-loaded beads. Hence, our data demonstrate that homodimerization autoregulates FGF9 and FGF20's receptor binding and concentration gradients in the extracellular matrix. Our study is the first to implicate ligand dimerization as an autoregulatory mechanism for growth factor bioactivity and sets the stage for engineering modified FGF9 subfamily ligands, with desired activity for use in both basic and translational research.

This study has examined the atomic-level dynamics of the protein in the capsid of filamentous phage Pf1. This capsid consists of ≈7,300 small subunits of only 46 aa in a helical array around a highly extended, circular single-stranded DNA molecule of 7,349 nt. Measurements were made of site-specific, solid-state NMR order parameters, 〈 S 〉, the values which are dimensionless quantities between 0 (mobile) and 1 (static) that characterize the amplitudes of molecular bond angular motions that are faster than microseconds. It was found that the protein subunit backbone is very static, and of particular interest, it appears to be static at residues glycine 15 and glutamine 16 where it had been previously thought to be mobile. In contrast to the backbone, several side chains display large-amplitude angular motions. Side chains on the virion exterior that interact with solvent are highly mobile, but surprisingly, the side chains of residues arginine 44 and lysine 45 near the DNA deep in the interior of the virion are also highly mobile. The large-amplitude dynamic motion of these positively charged side chains in their interactions with the DNA were not previously expected. The results reveal a highly dynamic aspect of a DNA–protein interface within a virus.

Assignments are presented for resonances in the magic-angle spinning solid-state NMR spectra of the major coat protein subunit of the filamentous bacteriophage Pf1. NMR spectra were collected on uniformly 13C and 15N isotopically enriched, polyethylene glycol precipitated samples of fully infectious and hydrated phage. Site-specific assignments were achieved for 231 of the 251 labeled atoms (92%) of the 46-residue-long coat protein, including 136 of the 138 backbone atoms, by means of two- and three-dimensional 15N and 13C correlation experiments. A single chemical shift was observed for the vast majority of atoms, suggesting a single conformation for the 7300 subunits in the 36 MDa virion in its high-temperature form. On the other hand, multiple chemical shifts were observed for the Calpha, Cbeta, and Cgamma atoms of T5 in the helix terminus and the Calpha and Cbeta atoms of M42 in the DNA interaction domain. The chemical shifts of the backbone atoms indicate that the coat protein conformation involves a 40-residue continuous alpha-helix extending from residue 6 to the C-terminus.

In NMR spectra of complex proteins, sparse isotope enrichment can be important, in that the removal of many 13C–13C homonuclear J-couplings can narrow the lines and thereby facilitate the process of spectral assignment and structure elucidation. We present a simple scheme for selective yet extensive isotopic enrichment applicable for production of proteins in organisms utilizing the Entner–Doudoroff (ED) metabolic pathway. An enrichment scheme so derived is demonstrated in the context of a magic-angle spinning solid-state NMR (MAS SSNMR) study of Pf1 bacteriophage, the host of which is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, strain K (PAK), an organism that uses the ED pathway for glucose catabolism. The intact and infectious Pf1 phage in this study was produced by infected PAK cells grown on a minimal medium containing 1-13C d-glucose (13C in position 1) as the sole carbon source, as well as 15NH4Cl as the only nitrogen source. The 37MDa Pf1 phage consists of about 93% major coat protein, 1% minor coat proteins, and 6% single-stranded, circular DNA. As a consequence of this composition and the enrichment scheme, the resonances in the MAS SSNMR spectra of the Pf1 sample were almost exclusively due to carbonyl carbons in the major coat protein. Moreover, 3D heteronuclear NCOCX correlation experiments also show that the amino acids leucine, serine, glycine, and tyrosine were not isotopically enriched in their carbonyl positions (although most other amino acids were), which is as expected based upon considerations of the ED metabolic pathway. 3D NCOCX NMR data and 2D 15N–15N data provided strong verification of many previous assignments of 15N amide and 13C carbonyl shifts in this highly congested spectrum; both the semi-selective enrichment patterns and the narrowed linewidths allowed for greater certainty in the assignments as compared with use of uniformly enriched samples alone.

Although all filamentous phages are constructed of chiral components, this study of eight of these phages (fd, IKe, I(2)2, X-2, Pf1, Pf3, tf-1, and X) shows that some form nematic liquid crystals, which are apparently oblivious to the chirality of the components, while others form cholesteric liquid crystals revealing a type of structural chirality not normally encountered. Additions of dopants that interact with the DNA or protein components of the viruses change the liquid crystal properties of seven of the phages. In these seven, DNA-capsid symmetry differences do not allow strict structural equivalency among the protein subunits. The polymorphism arising from this nonequivalency is proposed here to give rise to coiling of the filaments, a large-length-scale chirality that is responsible for forming cholesteric liquid crystal phases. Only one phage of those studied here, Pf1, which is distinguished from the others in its DNA-capsid interactions, forms nematic phases under all conditions tried. The formation of liquid crystals has been developed as a method to detect subtle overall shape effects arising from DNA-subunit-derived polymorphism, an unusual role for the mesogenic state and a new tool for the study of filamentous phage structure.

Raman optical activity measures vibrational optical activity by means of a small difference in the intensity of Raman scattering from chiral molecules in right and left circularly polarized incident light. The sensitivity of ROA to chirality makes it an incisive probe of biomolecular structure and dynamics in aqueous solution. This article reviews the basic theory and instrumentation of ROA, and describes recent results which illustrate how ROA provides new insight into current biomedical problems including protein misfolding and disease, and virus structure at the molecular level.

In this article comparisons are made among structural parameters derived from physicochemical data for fd, Pf1, and Xf viruses and, in some cases, those for the filamentous complex formed between fd DNA and the fd gene-V protein. Each of these nucleoproteins contains a circular, single-stranded (SS) DNA molecule and each is about 10 4 A in length and 10 2 A in diameter. In spite of these common characteristics, their structures differ significantly. Viruses and Hosts All known filamentous bacterial viruses have gram-negative bacteria as hosts. Those infecting strains of Escherichia coli carrying the F + transmissible sex factor include f1, fd, M13, ZJ/2, Ec9, AE2, and δ A (see Marvin and Hohn 1969). Because no structural differences have yet been reported for these viruses, we can assume that the structural parameters of fd hold for all of them. According to a number of criteria, two other viruses of E. coli , If1 (Meynell and Lawn 1968) and Ike (Khatoon et al. 1972), have structures that are similar to that of fd, even though their host specificities are determined by different transmissible genetic factors (Lawn et al. 1967; Khatoon and Iyer 1971). Members of a second group of viruses have Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains as hosts. These are Pf1, Pf2 (Takeya and Amako 1966; Minamishima et al. 1968), and Pf3 (Stanisich 1974), but structural data are available only for Pf1. The third virus in our comparison is Xf, the only filamentous virus of Xanthomonas oryzae that has been described (Kuo et al. 1967). One filamentous...