Recent advances in solution NMR: fast methods and heteronuclear direct detection

Abstract

Today, NMR spectroscopy is the technique of choice to investigate molecular structure, dynamics, and interactions in solution at atomic resolution. A major limitation of NMR spectroscopy for the study of biological macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, and their complexes, has always been its low sensitivity, a consequence of the weak magnetic spin interactions. Therefore many efforts have been invested in the last decade to improve NMR instrumentation in terms of experimental sensitivity. As a result of these efforts, the availability of high-field magnets, cryogenically cooled probes, and probably in the near future hyperpolarization techniques, the intrinsic NMR sensitivity has increased by at least one order of magnitude. Stimulated by new challenges in the life sciences, these technical improvements have triggered the development of new NMR methods for the study of molecular systems of increasing size and complexity. Herein, we focus on two examples of recently developed NMR methodologies. First, advanced multidimensional data acquisition schemes provide a speed increase of several orders of magnitude. Second, NMR methods based on the direct detection of low-gamma nuclei present a new spectroscopic tool, highly complementary to conventional NMR techniques. These new methods provide powerful new NMR tools for the study of short-lived molecules, large and intrinsically unstructured proteins, paramagnetic systems, as well as for the characterization of molecular kinetic processes at atomic resolution. These examples illustrate how NMR is continuously adapting to the new challenges in the life sciences, with the focus shifting from the characterization of single biomolecules to an integrated view of interacting molecular networks observed at varying levels of biological organization.