ABSTRACT
NMR theory was ahead of experiments, but in the late 1940s successful NMR experiments were rst performed. It took 10 years more before the method was adopted in biochemistry. Technology development during the 1960s and onward has given us Fourier transform spectroscopy as well as multidimensional NMR. These modern methods can now be routinely applied to relatively large biomolecules up to 50 kDa or, in special cases, up to 1 MDa. For a relatively small protein of less than 30 kDa, it is possible to obtain information about its threedimensional solution structure as well as descriptions of molecular dynamics and molecular interactions, all with atomic resolution. In fact, NMR is “the other” methodology for 3-D protein structures at atomic resolution, in addition to x-ray crystallography. In the database of protein structures (PPDB) at the end of 2008 there were about 7500? NMR structures reported, to be compared with 47000? x-ray structures. The comparative weakness of NMR is the molecular
12.1 NMR Theory and Techniques ..................................................................... 178 12.2 NMR Parameters ......................................................................................... 181 12.3 NMR Structure Determination .................................................................... 183 12.4 NMR Studies of Molecular Dynamics ........................................................ 185 12.5 NMR versus Crystallography as a 3-D Structure Determination Method ....186 12.6 New NMR Developments ........................................................................... 187 12.7 Solid-State NMR in Biology ....................................................................... 187 12.8 Magnetic Resonance Imaging ..................................................................... 188
weight limitation and the somewhat lower resolution compared to x-ray crystallography. The comparative strength is that the structure is determined in solution under controlled conditions in terms of pH and solvent ions, and that additional information about dynamics and interactions may be obtained.
