Simple high-resolution NMR spectroscopy as a tool in molecular biology

Abstract

NMR is one of the major techniques for investigating the structure, dynamics and interactions between biomolecules. However, non-experts often experience NMR experimentation and data analysis as intimidating. We discuss a simple yet powerful NMR technique, the so-called chemical shift perturbation (CSP) analysis, as a tool to elucidate macromolecular interactions in small- and medium-sized complexes, including protein-protein, protein-drug, and protein-DNA/RNA interactions. We discuss current software packages for NMR data analysis and present a new interactive graphical tool implemented in CcpNmr AnalysisAssign version-3, which can drastically reduce the time required for the CSP analysis. Lastly, we illustrate the usefulness of a protein three-dimensional structure for interpretation of the CSP data.