The g-gauche effect in 13 C NMR spectroscopy refers to the magnetic nonequivalence of the methyl carbons of the terminal isopropyl groups that are attached to branched alkanes; [1][2][3] this effect results in magnetic shielding of the carbon nucleus of the substituent in the gauche position by about 5 ppm relative to that of the same chemical group in the trans position. [4][5][6] Tonelli and colleagues demonstrated that the 13 C chemical shift of a carbon nucleus in a particular polymer stereoisomer is attributable solely to stereosequence-dependent differences in the probability that the given carbon atom is A C H T U N G T R E N N U N G involved in three-bond gauche interactions with other heavy atoms. Through this simple observation they were able to accurately and quantitatively predict the experimental 13 C NMR spectra of polypropylene and polypropylene model compounds with different stereoregularities. [4,5,7,8] We demonstrate here the use of the 13 C NMR g-gauche effect to establish leucine rotamer conformations in proteins, and provide a quantitative measure of their dynamics. This information is of value as a restraint on side-chain conformation in protein structure model building, [9,10] and is highly valuable for the interpretation of side chain methyl dynamics from 2 H or 13 C nuclear spin relaxation. [11][12][13][14][15][16] Although we focus below on methyl groups of leucine (Leu) residues, the g-gauche effect is a general determinant of chemical shifts of amino acid side-chain carbon nuclei, and expected to play an import role in their conformational analysis. [17][18][19] Leucine side chains can assume three stable staggered conformations of lowest potential energy as a function of the dihedral angle c 2 , referred to [20] as gauche(+) or p, gauche(À) or m, and trans or t (Figure 1). A carbon, rather than a proton, substituent in the gauche position leads to high internal energy, and results in the prevalence of conformations in which one atom is trans to the Ca atom, while the remaining atom is positioned gauche. Consequently, the two dominant c 2 rotamers are t and p. The energetics are mirrored by the c 2 side-chain distributions found in protein crystal structures. [20,21] In fact, at ambient temperature a small preference (2:1) of t over p is noticed in protein structures, as is observed for branched alkanes. [7] An analysis of the stereospecifically assigned methyl 13 C chemical shifts in the BioMagResBank (http://www.bmrb.wisc.edu/) is shown in Figure 2. The NMR data show that the preference of t over p observed in crystalline proteins is perfectly mirrored in solution.We have previously noted a strong correlation between the 3 J CC coupling and the methyl carbon chemical shift difference for leucine residues in two proteins; [22] this suggests that the wide distribution seen in Figure 2 could result from rotameric interconversion about the c 2 dihedral angle. A recent report by London and co-workers [19] supports this conclusion, and demonstrates that correlations between NMR side chain ...