Alternative SAIL-Trp for robust aromatic signal assignment and determination of the χ2 conformation by intra-residue NOEs

Tryptophan (Trp) residues are frequently found in the hydrophobic cores of proteins, and therefore, their side-chain conformations, especially the precise locations of the bulky indole rings, are critical for determining structures by NMR. However, when analyzing [U–13C,15N]-proteins, the observation and assignment of the ring signals are often hampered by excessive overlaps and tight spin couplings. These difficulties have been greatly alleviated by using stereo-array isotope labeled (SAIL) proteins, which are composed of isotope-labeled amino acids optimized for unambiguous side-chain NMR assignment, exclusively through the 13C–13C and 13C–1H spin coupling networks (Kainosho et al. in Nature 440:52–57, 2006). In this paper, we propose an alternative type of SAIL-Trp with the [ζ2,ζ3-2H2; δ1,ε3,η2-13C3; ε1-15N]-indole ring ([12Cγ,12Cε2] SAIL-Trp), which provides a more robust way to correlate the 1Hβ, 1Hα, and 1HN to the 1Hδ1 and 1Hε3 through the intra-residue NOEs. The assignment of the 1Hδ1/13Cδ1 and 1Hε3/13Cε3 signals can thus be transferred to the 1Hε1/15Nε1 and 1Hη2/13Cη2 signals, as with the previous type of SAIL-Trp, which has an extra 13C at the Cγ of the ring. By taking advantage of the stereospecific deuteration of one of the prochiral β-methylene protons, which was 1Hβ2 in this experiment, one can determine the side-chain conformation of the Trp residue including the χ2 angle, which is especially important for Trp residues, as they can adopt three preferred conformations. We demonstrated the usefulness of [12Cγ,12Cε2] SAIL-Trp for the 12 kDa DNA binding domain of mouse c-Myb protein (Myb-R2R3), which contains six Trp residues.