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Sparse pseudocontact shift NMR data obtained from a non-canonical amino acid-linked lanthanide tag improves integral membrane protein structure prediction

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Abstract

A single experimental method alone often fails to provide the resolution, accuracy, and coverage needed to model integral membrane proteins (IMPs). Integrating computation with experimental data is a powerful approach to supplement missing structural information with atomic detail. We combine RosettaNMR with experimentally-derived paramagnetic NMR restraints to guide membrane protein structure prediction. We demonstrate this approach using the disulfide bond formation protein B (DsbB), an α-helical IMP. Here, we attached a cyclen-based paramagnetic lanthanide tag to an engineered non-canonical amino acid (ncAA) using a copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click chemistry reaction. Using this tagging strategy, we collected 203 backbone HN pseudocontact shifts (PCSs) for three different labeling sites and used these as input to guide de novo membrane protein structure prediction protocols in Rosetta. We find that this sparse PCS dataset combined with 44 long-range NOEs as restraints in our calculations improves structure prediction of DsbB by enhancements in model accuracy, sampling, and scoring. The inclusion of this PCS dataset improved the Cα-RMSD transmembrane segment values of the best-scoring and best-RMSD models from 9.57 Å and 3.06 Å (no NMR data) to 5.73 Å and 2.18 Å, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants R01 GM080403, R01 HL122010, and R01 GM129261. The authors further acknowledge funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through SFB1423, project number 421152132. Jens Meiler is supported by a Humboldt Professorship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This work was conducted using the resources of the Biomolecular NMR facility and the Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education (ACCRE) at Vanderbilt University. We especially thank Prof. Markus Voehler for technical assistance with the NMR experiments. We thank Dr. Otting of the Australian National University for providing a test batch of the C3-based paramagnetic tag. All subsequent batches of the C3-based paramagnetic tag were synthesized in-house by Dr. Kwangho Kim of the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology, Molecular Design and Synthesis Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232-0412.

Funding

Funding was provided by National Institutes of Health (R01 GM080403) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (421152132).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37240, USA

    Kaitlyn V. Ledwitch, Jacob R. McKinney, Elleansar Okwei, Katherine Larochelle, Lisa Pankewitz, Soumya Ganguly, Heather L. Darling & Jens Meiler

  2. Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA

    Kaitlyn V. Ledwitch, Jacob R. McKinney, Elleansar Okwei, Katherine Larochelle, Lisa Pankewitz, Soumya Ganguly, Heather L. Darling & Jens Meiler

  3. Institute of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Science, University of Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Irene Coin

  4. Institute of Drug Discovery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Georg Künze & Jens Meiler

  5. Department of Chemistry, Center for Structural Biology, MRBIII 5154E, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37212, USA

    Kaitlyn V. Ledwitch

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  1. Kaitlyn V. Ledwitch
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Contributions

Conceptualization, KVL, GK, and JM; Data curation, KVL, GK, JRM, EO, KEL, LP, SG and HD; Formal analysis, KVL and GK; Funding acquisition, JM; Investigation, KVL, GK, and JM; Methodology, KVL, GK, and IC; Supervision, KVL and JM; Writing—original draft, KVL; Writing—review and editing, KVL, GK, and JM. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kaitlyn V. Ledwitch.

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Ledwitch, K.V., Künze, G., McKinney, J.R. et al. Sparse pseudocontact shift NMR data obtained from a non-canonical amino acid-linked lanthanide tag improves integral membrane protein structure prediction. J Biomol NMR 77, 69–82 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-023-00412-9

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