Structural Studies of Antarctic Fish Antifreeze Glycoproteins by One- and Two-Dimensional NMR Spectroscopy

Abstract

The solution structure of antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGP's) of the polar fish Tetramatomus borchgrevinki has been investigated by 2D ¹ H NMR spectroscopy as well as molecular modeling calculations (MM2). The simple glycotripeptide repeating structure in the shorter AFGP's (fractions 7 & 8) makes the structural analysis amenable. The resonance assignments of AFGP's 7 & 8 were determined by two-dimensional NMR techniques (COSY, Relayed-COSY, Phase Sensitive DQCOSY, NOESY). Information about the protein secondary structure was obtained by the coupling constants between the back-bone amide and α-carbon protons (obtained by phase sensitive COSY). Additional three dimensional constraints were obtained from NOESY through-space connectivities. The three dimensional solution structures of several AFGP's glycotripeptide fragments were based on MM2 calculations. The model structure was compared with the experimental data. Exchange rates of amide protons measured by dynamical spectroscopy show that the threonine and some of the alanine amide protons have two different and distinct exchange rates. GalNAc and the C-terminal Ala' amide protons appear to show relatively slow exchznge rates. The results suggets that the amide protons are not involved in any strong intramolecular hydrogen bonding.