More than Proton Detection—New Avenues for NMR Spectroscopy of RNA
This minireview written by Harald Schwalbe, Boris Fürtig and coworkers reports on the development of NMR methods that utilize detection on low-g nuclei (heteronuclei like 13C or 15N with lower gyromagnetic ratio than 1H) to obtain unique structural and dynamic information for large RNA molecules in solution. Experiments involve through-bond correlations of nucleobases and the phosphodiester backbone of RNA for chemical shift assignment and make information on hydrogen bonding uniquely accessible. Previously unobservable NMR resonances of amino groups in RNA nucleobases are now detected in experiments involving conformational exchange-resistant double-quantum 1H coherences, detected by 13C NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, 13C and 15N chemical shifts provide valuable information on conformations. All the covered aspects point to the advantages of low-g nuclei detection experiments in RNA.