Development of NMR Spectroscopic Methods for the Characterization of RNA
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Development of NMR spectroscopic methods for the characterization of RNA Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Naturwissenschaften vorgelegt beim Fachbereich Biochemie, Chemie und Pharmazie der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main von Robbin Schnieders aus Baden/Schweiz Frankfurt am Main 2020 (D30) vom Fachbereich Biochemie, Chemie und Pharmazie der Johann Wolfgang Goethe- Universität als Dissertation angenommen Dekan: Prof. Dr. Clemens Glaubitz Erster Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Harald Schwalbe Zweiter Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Jens Wöhnert Datum der Disputation: Meiner Familie. TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents SUMMARY 1 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 11 CHAPTER I: GENERAL INTRODUCTION 13 1.1 NMR SPECTROSCOPY ON RNA – FROM MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS TO CURRENT CHALLENGES 14 1.2 TOWARDS 13C-DETECTION 19 CHAPTER II: DEVELOPMENT OF 13C-DETECTED NMR EXPERIMENTS FOR AMINO GROUPS IN RNA 23 2.1 INTRODUCTION 24 2.1.1 FROM AMINO GROUP EXCHANGE AND ATTEMPTS TO REDUCE ITS EFFECTS 25 2.1.2 LEARNING FROM PROTEIN EXPERIMENTS 28 2.2 MATERIALS AND METHODS 30 2.2.1 THE RNAS UNDER STUDY 30 2.2.2 SAMPLE PREPARATION 30 2.2.3 NMR SPECTROSCOPY 32 2.2.4 STRUCTURE CALCULATION 32 2.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 33 2.3.1 PULSE SEQUENCE ANALYSIS 33 2.3.2 OPTIMIZATION OF THE CN-TRANSFER DELAY 36 2.3.3 APPLICATION OF THE 13C-DETECTED C(N)H-HDQC EXPERIMENT 37 2.3.4 APPLICATION OF THE 13C-DETECTED “AMINO”-NOESY EXPERIMENT 43 2.4 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK 46 2.4.1 FROM DQ TO ZQ 48 2.4.2 THE C(N)H-HDQC EXPERIMENT FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF APO STATES 48 CHAPTER III: 15N-DETECTED H-N CORRELATION EXPERIMENTS FOR RNA 53 3.1 INTRODUCTION 54 3.1.1 TROSY IN AN N-H SPIN SYSTEM 55 3.2 MATERIALS AND METHODS 61 3.2.1 THE RNAS UNDER STUDY 61 3.2.2 SAMPLE PREPARATION 62 3.2.3 NMR SPECTROSCOPY 63 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 66 3.3.1 15N-DETECTED H-N CORRELATION EXPERIMENTS – WHICH ONE TO USE? 66 3.3.2 EFFECT OF MOLECULAR SIZE ON LINE WIDTHS 69 3.3.3 EFFECT OF MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTH 73 3.4 CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK 76 CHAPTER IV: STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF RNA TETRALOOPS FOR FORCE FIELD CALIBRATION 79 4.1 INTRODUCTION 80 4.1.1 MD SIMULATIONS ON RNA 81 4.1.2 THE UUCG 14 NTS RNA STRUCTURES 81 4.1.3 NEW REFERENCE SYSTEMS – AN OVERVIEW 83 4.2 MATERIALS AND METHODS 86 4.2.1 THE RNAS UNDER STUDY 86 4.2.2 SAMPLE PREPARATION 86 4.2.3 NMR SPECTROSCOPY 90 4.2.4 STRUCTURE CALCULATION 90 4.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 92 4.3.1 RESONANCE ASSIGNMENT OF THE 14 NTS RNA WITH GAAG TETRALOOP 92 4.3.2 RNA CONFORMATION – EXTERNAL INFLUENCES 96 4.3.3 DETERMINATION OF TORSION ANGLES IN RNA 100 4.3.4 ON THE WAY TO A THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE – NOESY SPECTRA 107 4.3.5 THE STRUCTURE OF THE 14 NTS RNA WITH GAAG TETRALOOP 109 4.4 CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK 111 REFERENCES 113 CHAPTER V: APPENDIX - SUPPORTING INFORMATION FOR 13C-DETECTION 123 5.1 DETAILED FIGURE CAPTIONS 126 5.1.1 EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS FOR SPECTRA IN FIGURE 19 126 5.1.2 EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS FOR SPECTRA IN FIGURE 25 127 5.2 34 NTS RNA – NEW NOE CONTACTS 128 5.3 PULSE PROGRAMS 128 5.3.1 13C-DETECTED AMINO-SELECTIVE CN-HSQC 128 5.3.2 13C-DETECTED C(N)H-HSQC EXPERIMENT 129 5.3.3 13C-DETECTED C(N)H-HDQC EXPERIMENT 131 5.3.4 13C-DETECTED “AMINO”-NOESY EXPERIMENT 132 CHAPTER VI: APPENDIX 2 - SUPPORTING INFORMATION FOR 15N-DETECTION 135 TABLE OF CONTENTS 6.1 DETAILED FIGURE CAPTIONS 137 6.1.1 EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS FOR SPECTRA IN FIGURE 34: 137 6.2 PULSE PROGRAMS 138 6.2.1 15N-DETECTED HSQC EXPERIMENT 138 6.2.2 15N-DETECTED TROSY EXPERIMENT 138 6.2.3 15N-DETECTED BEST-TROSY EXPERIMENT 140 CHAPTER VII: APPENDIX 3 - SUPPORTING INFORMATION FOR THE STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF RNA TETRALOOPS 143 7.1 CHEMICAL SHIFT ASSIGNMENT OF THE 14 NTS RNA WITH GAAG TETRALOOP 143 7.1.1 EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS FOR EXPERIMENTS IN FIGURE 44 - FIGURE 46 143 7.1.2 RESONANCE OVERVIEW 144 7.2 TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF THE GAAG TETRALOOP 146 7.3 PULSE PROGRAMS 146 7.3.1 -HCNCH REFERENCE EXPERIMENT 146 7.3.2 -HCNCH CROSS EXPERIMENT 149 7.3.3 FORWARD DIRECTED HCC-TOCSY-CCH-E.COSY EXPERIMENT 151 7.3.4 2D -HCCH REFERENCE/ CROSS EXPERIMENT 153 7.4 COUPLING CONSTANTS AND CROSS-CORRELATED RELAXATION RATES 154 7.4.1 3J(H,H) COUPLING CONSTANTS 154 7.4.2 ΓCH, CHDD,DD CROSS-CORRELATED RELAXATION RATES 156 7.4.3 1J(C,H) COUPLING CONSTANTS 157 7.4.4 3J(C,P) AND 3J(H,P) COUPLING CONSTANTS 157 7.5 THE GAAG STRUCTURE 158 7.5.1 BASE PAIR PLANARITY AND HYDROGEN BOND RESTRAINTS 158 7.5.2 DIHEDRAL RESTRAINTS 159 7.5.3 NOESY PEAK LISTS 162 7.5.4 VIOLATIONS 171 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 173 PUBLICATIONS 175 CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS 176 CURRICULUM VITAE 178 SUMMARY Summary This PhD thesis is dedicated to the extension of the portfolio of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods to characterize ribonucleic acids (RNAs). Only within the last few decades it has been realized that the cellular role of RNA goes well beyond the central dogma of molecular biology. In fact, RNA takes part in numerous cellular processes, executes numerous functions and acts either as a single player or in larger complexes, mostly RNA-protein complexes (RNPs) such as the ribosome or the spliceosome. This versatility in RNA function is coupled to a structural variety and the ability to adopt multiple long-lived and intricate conformations. Due to this high molecular complexity special demands are placed on the methods that are required for RNA structural characterization. With the ability to capture dynamics at atomic resolution and to measure under close to native conditions, NMR spectroscopy is undoubtedly a prime method for this purpose. A general introduction to the current state of research, selected achievements as well as challenges in the field of NMR spectroscopy on RNA is given in Chapter I. This thesis is further composed of three independent chapters covering the three separate projects, which form the main body of work within the course of this thesis. The imino group found in two of the four RNA nucleobases is generally considered to be the most powerful reporter group in the process of the NMR spectroscopic characterization of RNA. Its resonance assignment provides key information for a rapid determination of the RNA’s secondary structure. This is possible, since the imino proton can only be detected, if it is protected from rapid solvent exchange through hydrogen bonding interactions or, in rare cases, steric shielding. Consequently, information on flexible regions of RNA that are not protected against solvent exchange cannot be derived using this NMR spy. It is a key finding of the thesis that nucleobase interactions can also be mapped through the amino groups, as they similarly take part in base pairing or RNA- ligand interactions. Notably, solvent exchange of the amino protons is always slower compared to the imino proton. Thus, 1H,15N resonances of the amino group can be detected even for dynamic regions of RNA. Moreover, focusing on characterizing amino groups of RNA nucleobases increases the number of available reporters as amino groups are present in three out of four RNA nucleobases. However, there is a reason that up to work conducted in this thesis, amino groups have not been used for monitoring RNA nucleobases: the rate of the C-NH2 bond rotation is most often close to the chemical shift differences of the two non-identical amino proton resonances, in particular for guanosines and adenosines, amino resonances regularly remain elusive in NMR spectra. Therefore, we developed experiments that excite double 1 SUMMARY quantum (DQ) coherences of the two amino group protons and that further utilize 13C- detection. Results on these experiments are discussed in Chapter II and show that the rotational exchange can be avoided by evolving double quantum instead of single quantum (SQ) coherence in the indirect dimension of a 13C-detected C(N)H-HDQC experiment. The new experiment enables the detection of a full set of sharp amino resonances. The advantages of this experiment are immediately apparent when comparing the number of observable imino Figure I 1H,15N-HSQC vs. C(N)H-HDQC spectra. resonances in a classic 1H,15N-HSQC spectrum with the number of amino resonances obtained in the 13C-detected C(N)H- HDQC spectrum of the same RNA (Figure I). Furthermore, based on the newly available resonance assignment of amino groups, we developed a 13C-detected “amino”-NOESY experiment to obtain precious additional structural restraints. The 13C-detected “amino”-NOESY experiment enables the observation of NOE contacts that are not accessible using other 1H-detected NOESY experiment. Among these new NOE contacts are valuable, inter-residual correlations, which are otherwise scarce in RNA due to the proton deficiency of its nucleobases. We showed that the newly obtained NOE contacts are especially important in the structure determination of RNAs with only few NOE restraints. Under such circumstances, the inclusion of the newly obtained amino NOE contacts lead to a significant improvement in the root- mean-square deviation (RMSD) of the three-dimensional structure of the 34 nts GTP class II aptamer (Figure II). Together the novel 13C-detected NMR experiments developed within this PhD project provide a valuable alternative Figure II The impact of new amino NOE contacts.