A standardized protocol enabling rapid NMR data collection for high-quality protein structure determination is presented that allows one to capitalize on high spectrometer sensitivity: a set of five G-matrix Fourier transform NMR experiments for resonance assignment based on highly resolved 4D and 5D spectral information is acquired in conjunction with a single simultaneous 3D 15 N, 13 C aliphatic , 13 C aromatic -resolved [ 1 H, 1 H]-NOESY spectrum providing 1 H-1 H upper distance limit constraints. The protocol was integrated with methodology for semiautomated data analysis and used to solve eight NMR protein structures of the Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium pipeline. The molecular masses of the hypothetical target proteins ranged from 9 to 20 kDa with an average of Ϸ14 kDa. Between 1 and 9 days of instrument time were invested per structure, which is less than Ϸ10 -25% of the measurement time routinely required to date with conventional approaches. The protocol presented here effectively removes data collection as a bottleneck for high-throughput solution structure determination of proteins up to at least Ϸ20 kDa, while concurrently providing spectra that are highly amenable to fast and robust analysis.G-matrix Fourier transform projection NMR ͉ NMR structure determination ͉ structural genomics

Simultaneously cycled (SC) NMR was introduced and exemplified by implementing a set of 2-D [1H,1H] SC exclusive COSY (E.COSY) NMR experiments, that is, rf pulse flip-angle cycled (SFC), rf pulse phase cycled (SPC), and pulsed field gradient (PFG) strength cycled (SGC) E.COSY. Spatially selective 1H rf pulses were applied as composite pulses such that all steps of the respective cycles were affected simultaneously in different slices of the sample. This increased the data acquisition speed for an n-step cycle n-fold. A high intrinsic sensitivity was achieved by defining the cycles in a manner that the receiver phase remains constant for all steps of the cycle. Then, the signal resulting from applying the cycle corresponded to the sum of the signals from all steps of the cycle. Hence, the detected free induction decay did not have to be separated into the contributions arising from different slices, and read-out PFGs, which not only greatly reduce sensitivity but also negatively impact lineshapes in the direct dimension, were avoided. The current implementation of SFC E.COSY reached approximately 65% of the intrinsic sensitivity of the conventional phase cycled congener, making this experiment highly attractive whenever conventional data acquisition is sampling limited. Highly resolved SC E.COSY yielding accurate 3J-coupling values was recorded for the 416 Da plant alkaloid tomatidine within 80 min, that is, 12 times faster than with conventional phase cycled E.COSY. SC NMR is applicable for a large variety of NMR experiments and thus promises to be a valuable addition to the arsenal of approaches for tackling the NMR sampling problem to avoid sampling limited data acquisition.

Spatially selective heteronuclear multiple-quantum coherence (SS HMQC) NMR spectroscopy was devised for solution studies of proteins. Due to ‘time-staggered’ acquisition of free induction decays (FIDs) in different slices, SS HMQC allows one to employ long delays for longitudinal nuclear spin relaxation at high repetition rates for the acquisition of the FIDs. To also achieve high intrinsic sensitivity, SS HMQC was implemented by combing a single spatially selective 1H excitation pulse with non-selective 1H 180° pulses. High-quality spectra could be obtained within 66 seconds for a 7.6 kDa uniformly 13C,15N-labeled protein, and within 45 and 90 seconds for, respectively, two uniformly 2H,13C,15N-labeled but isoleucine, leucine and valine methyl group protonated proteins with molecular weights of 7.5 and 43 kDa.