SignificanceConversion of ribonucleotides to the 2′-deoxyribonucleotides required for DNA biosynthesis is catalyzed by ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) via a free-radical mechanism. Known types of RNRs all depend on redox-active transition metals—manganese, iron, or cobalt—for radical initiation. Pathogenic bacteria are challenged by transition metal sequestration and infliction of oxidative stress by their hosts, and the deployment of multiple RNRs with different metal requirements and radical-initiating oxidants is a known bacterial countermeasure. A class I RNR from two bacterial pathogens completely lacks transition metals in its active state and uses a tyrosine-derived dihydroxyphenylalanine radical as its initiator, embodying a novel tactic to combat transition metal- and oxidant-mediated innate immunity and reinforcing bacterial RNRs as potential antibiotic targets.

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has evolved as the method of choice to enhance NMR signal intensities and to address a variety of otherwise inaccessible chemical, biological and physical questions. Despite its success, there is no detailed understanding of how the large electron polarization is transferred to the surrounding nuclei or where these nuclei are located relative to the polarizing agent. To address these questions we perform an analysis of the three-spin solid effect, and show that it is exquisitely sensitive to the electron-nuclear distances. We exploit this feature and determine that the size of the spin diffusion barrier surrounding the trityl radical in a glassy glycerol–water matrix is <6 Å, and that the protons involved in the initial transfer step are on the trityl molecule. 1H ENDOR experiments indicate that polarization is then transferred in a second step to glycerol molecules in intimate contact with the trityl.

TOP-DNP is an innovative pulsed DNP method that efficiently enhances NMR signals with moderate microwave power at high fields.

In DNP MAS NMR experiments at ~80–110 K, the structurally important −13CH3 and −15NH3+ signals in MAS spectra of biological samples disappear due to the interference of the molecular motions with the 1H decoupling. Here we investigate the effect of these dynamic processes on the NMR line shapes and signal intensities in several typical systems: (1) microcrystalline APG, (2) membrane protein bR, (3) amyloid fibrils PI3-SH3, (4) monomeric alanine-CD3, and (5) the protonated and deuterated dipeptide N-Ac-VL over 78–300 K. In APG, the three-site hopping of the Ala-Cβ peak disappears completely at 112 K, concomitant with the attenuation of CP signals from other 13C’s and 15N’s. Similarly, the 15N signal from Ala-NH3+ disappears at ~ 173 K, concurrent with the attenuation in CP experiments of other 15N’s as well as 13C’s. In bR and PI3-SH3, the methyl groups are attenuated at ~95 K, while all other 13C’s remain unaffected. However, both systems exhibit substantial losses of intensity at ~243 K. Finally, with spectra of Ala and N-Ac-VL, we show that it is possible to extract site specific dynamic data from the temperature dependence of the intensity losses. Furthermore, 2H labeling can assist with recovering the spectral intensity. Thus, our study provides insight into the dynamic behavior of biological systems over a wide range of temperatures, and serves as a guide to optimizing the sensitivity and resolution of structural data in low temperature DNP MAS NMR spectra.

The Overhauser effect (OE), commonly observed in NMR spectra of liquids and conducting solids, was recently discovered in insulating solids doped with the radical 1,3-bisdiphenylene-2-phenylallyl (BDPA). However, the mechanism of polarization transfer in OE-DNP in insulators is yet to be established, but hyperfine coupling of the radical to protons in BDPA has been proposed. In this paper we present a study that addresses the role of hyperfine couplings via the EPR and DNP measurements on some selectively deuterated BDPA radicals synthesized for this purpose. Newly developed synthetic routes enable selective deuteration at orthogonal positions or perdeuteration of the fluorene moieties with 2 H incorporation of >93%. The fluorene moieties were subsequently used to synthesize two octadeuterated BDPA radicals, 1,3-[α,γ-d 8 ]-BDPA and 1,3-[β,δ-d 8 ]-BDPA, and a BDPA radical with perdeuterated fluorene moieties, 1,3-[α,β,γ,δ-d 16 ]-BDPA. In contrast to the strong positive OE enhancement observed in degassed samples of fully protonated h 21 -BDPA (ε ∼ +70), perdeuteration of the fluorenes results in a negative enhancement (ε ∼ −13), while selective deuteration of αand γ-positions (a iso ∼ 5.4 MHz) in BDPA results in a weak negative OE enhancement (ε ∼ −1). Furthermore, deuteration of βand δ-positions (a iso ∼ 1.2 MHz) results in a positive OE enhancement (ε ∼ +36), albeit with a reduced magnitude relative to that observed in fully protonated BDPA. Our results clearly show the role of the hyperfine coupled α and γ 1 H spins in the BDPA radical in determining the dominance of the zero and double-quantum cross-relaxation pathways and the polarization-transfer mechanism to the bulk matrix.