High-Resolution NMR Determination of the Dynamic Structure of Membrane Proteins

N-15 spin-relaxation rates are demonstrated to provide critical information about the long-range structure and internal motions of membrane proteins. Combined with an improved calculation method, the relaxation-rate-derived structure of the 283-residue human voltage-dependent anion channel revealed an anisotropically shaped barrel with a rigidly attached N-terminal helix. Our study thus establishes an NMR spectroscopic approach to determine the structure and dynamics of mammalian membrane proteins at high accuracy and resolution.