Sequential nuclear Overhauser effects

FIGURE 13 Sequential nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs). If the Val residue is next to the Lys residue, the dashed arrows will not be observed as shown in the figure on the right, and vice versa. 

TTie TOCSY 2D NMR experiment correlates all protons of a spin system, not just those directly connected via three chemical bonds. For the protein example, the alpha proton, Ft , and all the other protons are able to transfer magnetization to the beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon protons if they are connected by a continuous chain—that is, the continuous chain of protons in the side chains of the individual amino acids making up the protein. The COSY and TOCSY experiments are used to build so-called spin systems—that is, a list of resonances of the chemical shift of the peptide main chain proton, the alpha proton(s), and all other protons from each aa side chain. Which chemical shifts correspond to which nuclei in the spin system is determined by the conventional correlation spectroscopy connectivities and the fact that different types of protons have characteristic chemical shifts. To connect the different spin systems in a sequential order, the nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy... 

The elucidation of the scalar coupling network by the correlation experiments is, apart from small molecules, not sufficient for the unambiguous, sequential and stereo-specific assignment. The complementary information of spatially adjacent protons is obtained via cross-relaxation experiments, the laboratory-frame nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy (NOESY) and the rotating-frame nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (ROESY). These experiments provide also the distance restraints for the structure determination and help to recognize exchange processes. 

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