Utilization of lysine ¹³C-methylation NMR for protein-protein interaction studies

J Biomol NMR. 2013 Jan;55(1):19-31. doi: 10.1007/s10858-012-9675-9. Epub 2012 Dec 6.

Abstract

Chemical modification is an easy way for stable isotope labeling of non-labeled proteins. The reductive (13)C-methylation of the amino group of the lysine side-chain by (13)C-formaldehyde is a post-modification and is applicable to most proteins since this chemical modification specifically and quickly proceeds under mild conditions such as 4 °C, pH 6.8, overnight. (13)C-methylation has been used for NMR to study the interactions between the methylated proteins and various molecules, such as small ligands, nucleic acids and peptides. Here we applied lysine (13)C-methylation NMR to monitor protein-protein interactions. The affinity and the intermolecular interaction sites of methylated ubiquitin with three ubiquitin-interacting proteins were successfully determined using chemical-shift perturbation experiments via the (1)H-(13)C HSQC spectra of the (13)C-methylated-lysine methyl groups. The lysine (13)C-methylation NMR results also emphasized the importance of the usage of side-chain signals to monitor the intermolecular interaction sites, and was applicable to studying samples with concentrations in the low sub-micromolar range.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Isotopes / chemistry*
  • Endopeptidases / chemistry
  • Endopeptidases / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Lysine / chemistry*
  • Methylation
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Interaction Mapping
  • Proteins / chemistry*
  • Proteins / metabolism
  • Ubiquitin / chemistry
  • Ubiquitin / metabolism

Substances

  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Proteins
  • Ubiquitin
  • Endopeptidases
  • ubiquitin-Nalpha-protein hydrolase
  • Lysine