Benchmark Test and Guidelines for DEER/PELDOR Experiments on Nitroxide-Labeled Biomolecules

Distance distribution information obtained by pulsed dipolar EPR spectroscopy provides an important contribution to many studies in structural biology. Increasingly, such information is used in integrative structural modeling, where it delivers unique restraints on the width of conformational ensembles. In order to ensure reliability of the structural models and of biological conclusions, we herein define quality standards for sample preparation and characterization, for measurements of distributed dipole-dipole couplings between paramagnetic labels, for conversion of the primary time-domain data into distance distributions, for interpreting these distributions, and for reporting results. These guidelines are substantiated by a multi-laboratory benchmark study and by analysis of data sets with known distance distribution ground truth. The study and the guidelines focus on proteins labeled with nitroxides and on double electron-electron resonance (DEER aka PELDOR) measurements and provide suggestions on how to proceed analogously in other cases.

Open and Closed Radicals: Local Geometry around Unpaired Electrons Governs Magic-Angle Spinning Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Performance

The development of magic-angle spinning dynamic nuclear polarization (MAS DNP) has allowed atomic-level characterization of materials for which conventional solid-state NMR is impractical due to the lack of sensitivity. The rapid progress of MAS DNP has been largely enabled through the understanding of rational design concepts for more efficient polarizing agents (PAs). Here, we identify a new design principle which has so far been overlooked. We find that the local geometry around the unpaired electron can change the DNP enhancement by an order of magnitude for two otherwise identical conformers. We present a set of 13 new stable mono- and dinitroxide PAs for MAS DNP NMR where this principle is demonstrated. The radicals are divided into two groups of isomers, named open (O-) and closed (C-), based on the ring conformations in the vicinity of the N-O bond. In all cases, the open conformers exhibit dramatically improved DNP performance as compared to the closed counterparts. In particular, a new urea-based biradical named HydrOPol and a mononitroxide O-MbPyTol yield enhancements of 330 ± 60 and 119 ± 25, respectively, at 9.4 T and 100 K, which are the highest enhancements reported so far in the aqueous solvents used here. We find that while the conformational changes do not significantly affect electron spin-spin distances, they do affect the distribution of the exchange couplings in these biradicals. Electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) experiments suggest that the improved performance of the open conformers is correlated with higher solvent accessibility.

Precision Spectroscopy in Cold Molecules: The Lowest Rotational Interval of He_{2}^{+} and Metastable He_{2}

Multistage Zeeman deceleration was used to generate a slow, dense beam of translationally cold He_{2} molecules in the metastable a ^{3}Σ_{u}^{+} state. Precision measurements of the Rydberg spectrum of these molecules at high values of the principal quantum number n have been carried out. The spin-rotational state selectivity of the Zeeman-deceleration process was exploited to reduce the spectral congestion, minimize residual Doppler shifts, resolve the Rydberg series around n=200 and assign their fine structure. The ionization energy of metastable He_{2} and the lowest rotational interval of the X^{+} ^{2}Σ_{u}^{+} (ν^{+}=0) ground state of ^{4}He_{2}^{+} have been determined with unprecedented precision and accuracy by Rydberg-series extrapolation. Comparison with ab initio predictions of the rotational energy level structure of ^{4}He_{2}^{+} [W.-C. Tung, M. Pavanello, and L. Adamowicz, J. Chem. Phys. 136, 104309 (2012)] enabled us to quantify the magnitude of relativistic and quantum-electrodynamics contributions to the fundamental rotational interval of He_{2}^{+}.