Two-Dimensional (2D) NMR Methods

11 Multi-dimensional Methods in Biological NMR

Tobias Schneider^1,2 and Michael Kovermann^1,2

¹ Department of Chemistry, Universitätsstrasse 10, Universität Konstanz, DE-78457 Konstanz² Graduate School Chemical Biology KoRS-CB, Universitätsstrasse 10, Universität Konstanz, DE-78457 Konstanz

11.1 Introduction

High-resolution NMR spectroscopy represents a key method to probe biological molecules. This is due to its ability to acquire experimental data on structural, dynamical, and functional characteristics of the molecule under study at atomic resolution. In this respect, NMR active nuclei of high interest are represented by proton (¹H), carbon (¹³C), nitrogen (¹⁵N), fluorine (¹⁹F), and phosphorus (³¹P), which all are spin nuclei. Whereas natural abundance of ¹H is about 99.99% and of ³¹P is 100%, efficient and targeted labeling of desired molecules using ¹³C, ¹⁵N, and ¹⁹F nuclei is achieved by established protocols [1-11]. As a general rule, the first important characterization of the biomolecule of interest should be done by acquiring a highly resolved 1D NMR spectrum reporting on ¹H and ¹⁹F (holding for fluorinated peptides, fluorinated proteins) or ¹H and ³¹P (holding for nucleic acids) resonance signals. For this purpose, a magnetic field strength of about  T is sufficient in ...