総説

可変圧力ＮＭＲ法による新しい蛋白質構造パラダイムの構築

A New Paradigm of Protein Structures by Variable Pressure ＮＭＲ

北原 　亮・横山 茂之・赤坂 一之
Ryo KITAHARA, Shigeyuki YOKOYAMA, and Kazuyuki AKASAKA

溶液中の蛋白質は，天然構造から変性構造までの広い構造空間をダイナミックに揺らぎながら機能している．可変圧力ＮＭＲ法によって，天然構造の先に広がる広い構造空間の探索が可能となった．我々はこれによって新しいダイナミックな蛋白質像の構築を目指す．

A protein in solution is a thermodynamic entity existing in equilibrium among multiple conformations from the folded to the unfolded. Various experimental results indicate that transitions to higher energy conformers are crucial for function in many proteins. However, our knowledge on higher energy conformers is extremely limited at present, compared to the knowledge about the folded counterparts. A newly emerging technique, the variable pressure NMR method, enables us to explore a much wider conformational space of proteins than hitherto explored by X-ray crystallography and conventional NMR technique, giving a new dynamic view of proteins that amply fluctuate over the entire conformational space.