Two-dimensional proton NMR studies of cytochrome c

Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance techniques were used to assign the NH, C alpha H, and C beta H protons of over 60 of the 104 amino acid residues in the 1H NMR spectrum of horse ferrocytochrome c. The majority of these amino acids were completely assigned. Assignments were based on the analysis of two-dimensional J-correlated (COSY), nuclear Overhauser effect (NOESY), and relayed COSY spectra and on comparisons of the J-correlated spectra of various cytochrome c species. Spin diffusion is not a problem with monomeric proteins the size of cytochrome c. Here these advances are illustrated with data that lead to the assignment of the heme-associated residues cysteine-14 and tryptophan-59, the axial ligands methionine-80 and histidine-18, the entire N-terminal helix, and several other amino acid spin systems. With these approaches, structure, structure change, the internal dynamics of cytochrome c, and the interaction of these with function are being studied, especially by observation of the hydrogen exchange behavior of essentially all the H-bonded amides and some side chain protons in both the reduced and oxidized proteins.