Secondary structure determination by NMR spectroscopy of an immunoglobulin-like domain from the giant muscle protein titin

Summary

We present the complete ¹⁵N and ¹H NMR assignment and the secondary structure of an immunoglobulin-like domain from the giant muscle protein titin. The assignment was obtained using homonuclear and ¹⁵N heteronuclear 2D and 3D experiments. The complementarity of 3D TOCSY-NOESY and 3D ¹⁵N NOESY-HSQC experiments, using WATERGATE for water suppression, allowed an efficient assignment of otherwise ambiguous cross peaks and was helpful in overcoming poor TOCSY transfer for some amino acids. The secondary structure is derived from specific NOEs between backbone α- and amide protons, secondary chemical shifts of α-protons and chemical exchange for the backbone amide protons. It consists of eight β-strands, forming two β-sheets with four strands each, similar to the classical β-sandwich of the immunoglobulin superfamily, as previously predicted by sequence analysis. Two of the β-strands are connected by type II β-turns; the first β-strand forms a β-bulge. The whole topology is very similar to the only intracellular immunoglobulin-like domain for which a structure has been determined so far, i.e., telokin.