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Modulating alignment of membrane proteins in liquid-crystalline and oriented gel media by changing the size and charge of phospholipid bicelles

Journal of Biomolecular NMR volume 55, pages 369–377 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

We demonstrate that alignment of a structured peptide or small protein solubilized in mixed phospholipid:detergent micelles or bicelles, when embedded in a compressed gel or liquid crystalline medium, can be altered by either changing the phospholipid aggregate shape, charge, or both together. For the hemagglutinin fusion peptide solubilized in bicelles, we show that bicelle shape and charge do not change its helical hairpin structure but impact its alignment relative to the alignment medium, both in charged compressed acrylamide gel and in liquid crystalline d(GpG). The method can be used to generate sets of residual dipolar couplings that correspond to orthogonal alignment tensors, and holds promise for high-resolution structural refinement and dynamic mapping of membrane proteins.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Annie Aniana for help with protein expression and purification, Nicolas A. Bax for measuring the cmc of DHPS, and Dennis A. Torchia for discussions and comments. This work was funded by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Intramural AIDS-Targeted Antiviral Program of the Office of the Director, NIH.

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  1. Laboratory of Chemical Physics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institutes of Health, Building 5, Room 126, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD, 20892-0520, USA

    Justin L. Lorieau, Alexander S. Maltsev, John M. Louis & Ad Bax

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  1. Justin L. Lorieau
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  2. Alexander S. Maltsev
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  3. John M. Louis
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  4. Ad Bax
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Correspondence to Ad Bax.

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Lorieau, J.L., Maltsev, A.S., Louis, J.M. et al. Modulating alignment of membrane proteins in liquid-crystalline and oriented gel media by changing the size and charge of phospholipid bicelles. J Biomol NMR 55, 369–377 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-013-9720-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-013-9720-3

Keywords

  • Bicelle
  • Dipolar coupling
  • Fusion peptide
  • NMR
  • Orthogonal alignment
  • Saupe matrix