General integral and series expressions are derived for the intensities of sidebands observed in the magic angle spectra of inhomogeneously broadened I=1/2 systems. The expressions are evaluated for a wide range of shift parameters and the results used to construct graphical and numerical methods for extracting the principal values of chemical shift tensors from the intensities of just a few sidebands. The methods are illustrated by application to 31P spectra of barium diethyl phosphate. The results agree well with previous single crystal measurements.

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is a method that permits NMR signal intensities of solids and liquids to be enhanced significantly, and is therefore potentially an important tool in structural and mechanistic studies of biologically relevant molecules. During a DNP experiment, the large polarization of an exogeneous or endogeneous unpaired electron is transferred to the nuclei of interest (I) by microwave (μw) irradiation of the sample. The maximum theoretical enhancement achievable is given by the gyromagnetic ratios (γ e /γ l ), being ∼660 for protons. In the early 1950s, the DNP phenomenon was demonstrated experimentally, and intensively investigated in the following four decades, primarily at low magnetic fields. This review focuses on recent developments in the field of DNP with a special emphasis on work done at high magnetic fields (≥5 T), the regime where contemporary NMR experiments are performed. After a brief historical survey, we present a review of the classical continuous wave (cw) DNP mechanisms-the Overhauser effect, the solid effect, the cross effect, and thermal mixing. A special section is devoted to the theory of coherent polarization transfer mechanisms, since they are potentially more efficient at high fields than classical polarization schemes. The implementation of DNP at high magnetic fields has required the development and improvement of new and existing instrumentation. Therefore, we also review some recent developments in μw and probe technology, followed by an overview of DNP applications in biological solids and liquids. Finally, we outline some possible areas for future developments.

Conspectus During the three decades 1980–2010, magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR developed into the method of choice to examine many chemical, physical and biological problems. In particular, a variety of dipolar recoupling methods to measure distances and torsion angles can now constrain molecular structures to high resolution. However, applications are often limited by the low sensitivity of the experiments, due in large part to the necessity of observing spectra of low-γ nuclei such as the I = ½ species 13C or 15N. The difficulty is still greater when quadrupolar nuclei, like 17O or 27Al, are involved. This problem has stimulated efforts to increase the sensitivity of MAS experiments. A particularly powerful approach is dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) which takes advantage of the higher equilibrium polarization of electrons (which conventionally manifests in the great sensitivity advantage of EPR over NMR). In DNP, the sample is doped with a stable paramagnetic polarizing agent and irradiated with microwaves to transfer the high polarization in the electron spin reservoir to the nuclei of interest. The idea was first explored by Overhauser and Slichter in 1953. However, these experiments were carried out on static samples, at magnetic fields that are low by current standards. To be implemented in contemporary MAS NMR experiments, DNP requires microwave sources operating in the subterahertz regime — roughly 150–660 GHz — and cryogenic MAS probes. In addition, improvements were required in the polarizing agents, because the high concentrations of conventional radicals that are required to produce significant enhancements compromise spectral resolution. In the last two decades scientific and technical advances have addressed these problems and brought DNP to the point where it is achieving wide applicability. These advances include the development of high frequency gyrotron microwave sources operating in the subterahertz frequency range. In addition, low temperature MAS probes were developed that permit in-situ microwave irradiation of the samples. And, finally, biradical polarizing agents were developed that increased the efficiency of DNP experiments by factors of ~4 at considerably lower paramagnet concentrations. Collectively these developments have made it possible to apply DNP on a routine basis to a number of different scientific endeavors, most prominently in the biological and material sciences. This Account reviews these developments, including the primary mechanisms used to transfer polarization in high frequency DNP, and the current choice of microwave sources and biradical polarizing agents. In addition, we illustrate the utility of the technique with a description of applications to membrane and amyloid proteins that emphasizes the unique structural information that is available in these two cases.

A frequency selective heteronuclear polarization transfer technique is introduced for rotating solids. In this method, radiofrequency fields comparable with the frequency offsets are applied to establish Hartmann-Hahn cross polarization that therefore depends explicitly on the resonance offset of the nuclei involved. Under these conditions, spectrally induced filtering in combination with cross polarization (SPECIFIC CP) can be achieved and is demonstrated to be useful for spectral simplification or assignment in heteronuclear spin pairs. The design principles are outlined and demonstrated experimentally on I3C, "N labelled amino acids.

Observation and structural studies of reaction intermediates of proteins are challenging because of the mixtures of states usually present at low concentrations. Here, we use a 250 GHz gyrotron (cyclotron resonance maser) and cryogenic temperatures to perform high-frequency dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) NMR experiments that enhance sensitivity in magic-angle spinning NMR spectra of cryo-trapped photocycle intermediates of bacteriorhodopsin (bR) by a factor of Ϸ90. Multidimensional spectroscopy of U-13 C, 15 N-labeled samples resolved coexisting states and allowed chemical shift assignments in the retinylidene chromophore for several intermediates not observed previously. The correlation spectra reveal unexpected heterogeneity in dark-adapted bR, distortion in the K state, and, most importantly, 4 discrete L substates. Thermal relaxation of the mixture of L's showed that 3 of these substates revert to bR568 and that only the 1 substate with both the strongest counterion and a fully relaxed 13-cis bond is functional. These definitive observations of functional and shunt states in the bR photocycle provide a preview of the mechanistic insights that will be accessible in membrane proteins via sensitivity-enhanced DNP NMR. These observations would have not been possible absent the signal enhancement available from DNP.ultidimensional magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR is a general tool in structural studies of membrane proteins that are inaccessible to crystallography and solutionstate NMR, as demonstrated by recent successful applications (1-3). But the sensitivity of these experiments is low, which becomes a significant problem when multidimensional experiments are needed to characterize systems of higher molecular weight. The sensitivity deficit is even more acute when NMR signals are further divided among multiple states, as is often the case for trapped reaction intermediates. Consequently, a 1-2 order of magnitude enhancement of NMR sensitivity is essential for applications of multidimensional MAS NMR methods to studies of reaction intermediates of membrane proteins.One approach to improving the sensitivity of NMR is dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), in which the Ϸ660-fold greater spin polarization of unpaired electrons in a paramagnetically doped glassy matrix is transferred to nuclei before an NMR experiment (4). Here, we demonstrate that high-frequency DNP by using a stable, high-power 250 GHz microwave source (5) and an efficient, nonperturbing biradical polarizing agent (6, 7), is a potentially general approach for biological MAS NMR. A 43-fold signal enhancement from DNP, combined with operation at 90 K, yields an overall 90-fold signal enhancement over previous experiments at 183 K (8). The resulting Ϸ8,100-fold savings in acquisition time permits 2-dimensional (2D) resolution of signals from mixtures of reaction intermediates that would be impossible to observe absent the enhancement available from DNP.In bacteriorhodopsin (bR), 7 transmembrane helices surround a transport channel in whic...

We describe a magic-angle spinning NMR experiment for selective (13)C-(15)N distance measurements in uniformly (13)C,(15)N-labeled solids, where multiple (13)C-(15)N and (13)C-(13)C interactions complicate the accurate measurement of structurally interesting, weak (13)C-(15)N dipolar couplings. The new experiment, termed FSR (frequency selective REDOR), combines the REDOR pulse sequence with a frequency selective spin-echo to recouple a single (13)C-(15)N dipolar interaction in a multiple spin system. Concurrently the remaining (13)C-(15)N dipolar couplings and all (13)C-(13)C scalar couplings to the selected (13)C are suppressed. The (13)C-(15)N coupling of interest is extracted by a least-squares fit of the experimentally observed modulation of the (13)C spin-echo intensity to the analytical expression describing the dipolar dephasing in an isolated heteronuclear spin pair under conventional REDOR. The experiment is demonstrated in three uniformly (13)C,(15)N-labeled model systems: asparagine, N-acetyl-L-Val-L-Leu and N-formyl-L-Met-L-Leu-L-Phe; in N-formyl-[U-(13)C,(15)N]L-Met-L-Leu-L-Phe we have determined a total of 16 internuclear distances in the 2.5-6 A range.

A new polarizing agent with superior performance in dynamic nuclear polarization experiments is introduced, and utilizes two TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl) moieties connected through a rigid spiro tether (see structure). The observed NMR signal intensities were enhanced by a factor of 1.4 compared to those of TOTAPOL, a previously described TEMPO-based biradical with a flexible tether.

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