Sergey Milikisyants

Antiparallel Arrangement of the Helices of Vesicle-Bound α-Synuclein

alpha-Synuclein (alphaS) is the main component of Lewy bodies from Parkinsons disease. That alphaS binds to membranes is known, but the conformation it adopts is still unclear. Pulsed EPR on doubly spin-labeled variants of alphaS sheds light on the most likely structure. For alphaS bound to vesicles large enough to accommodate also the extended conformation, an antiparallel helix conformation is found. This suggests that the bent structure shown is the preferred conformation of alphaS on membranes.

A pulsed EPR method to determine distances between paramagnetic centers with strong spectral anisotropy and radicals: the dead-time free RIDME sequence.

Methods to determine distances between paramagnetic metal centers and radicals are scarce. This is unfortunate because paramagnetic metal centers are frequent in biological systems and so far have not been employed much as distance markers. Successful pulse sequences that directly target the dipolar interactions cannot be applied to paramagnetic metal centers with fast relaxation rates and large g-anisotropy, if no echos can be detected and the excitation bandwidth is not sufficient to cover a sufficiently large part of the spectrum. The RIDME method Kulik et al. (2002) [20] circumvents this problem by making use of the T(1)-induced spin-flip of the transition-metal ion. Designed to measure distance between such a fast relaxing metal center and a radical, it suffers from a dead time problem. We show that this is severe because the anisotropy of the metal center broadens the dipolar curves, which therefore, only can be analyzed if the full curve is known. Here, we introduce five-pulse RIDME (5p-RIDME) that is intrinsically dead-time free. Proper functioning of the sequence is demonstrated on a nitroxide biradical. The distance between a low-spin Fe(III) center and a spin label in spin-labeled cytochrome f shows the complete dipolar trace of a transition-metal ion center and a spin label, yielding the distance expected from the structure.

A Multifrequency High-Field Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Study of CoIIS4 Coordination

Advanced electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) methods have been employed in the study of two high-spin cobalt(II) complexes, Co[(SPPh(2))(2)N](2) (Co(Ph,Ph)L(2)) and Co[(SPPh(2))(SP(i)Pr(2))N](2) (Co(iPr,Ph)L(2)), in which the bidentate disulfidoimidodiphosphinato ligands make up for a pseudotetrahedral sulfur coordination of the transition metal. The CoS(4) core in the two complexes has slightly different structure, owing to the different peripheral groups (phenyl or isopropyl) bound to the phosphorus atoms. To determine the zero-field splitting, notoriously difficult for high-spin cobalt(II), the two complexes required different approaches. For Co(Ph,Ph)L(2), the study of the X-band EPR spectrum of a single crystal as a function of temperature revealed a nearly axial character of the zero-field splitting (ZFS; E/D approximately -0.05). For Co(iPr,Ph)L(2), the combination of the EPR spectra at 9, 95, and 275 GHz revealed a rhombic character of the ZFS (E/D approximately -0.33). The energy difference between the Kramers doublets in Co(Ph,Ph)L(2) and Co(iPr,Ph)L(2) amounts to 24 cm(-1) and 30 cm(-1), respectively. From the X-band EPR spectra of diamagnetically diluted single crystals at fields up to 2.5 T for Co(Ph,Ph)L(2) and 0.5 T for Co(iPr,Ph)L(2), the effective g tensors and cobalt hyperfine tensors have been determined, including the direction of the principal axes in the cobalt sites. The values of the EPR observables are discussed in relation to the structural characteristics of the first (CoS(4)) and second coordination sphere in the complexes.

Identification of a Radical Intermediate in the Enzymatic Reduction of Oxygen by a Small Laccase

The enzyme mechanism of the Cu-containing small laccase (SLAC) from Streptomyces coelicolor has been investigated by optical and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. A new intermediate was identified after the reaction of molecular oxygen with the reduced trinuclear site of the type-1-depleted (T1D) form of the enzyme. It has the fingerprint of a biradical with a triplet ground state. One of the spins resides on a Cu in the trinuclear site, tentatively identified as the type-2 site, while the other spin derives from a protein-based radical. The latter is tentatively identified as a tyrosyl radical on the basis of the similarity of the optical characteristics with those observed for a Cu tyrosyl radical pair. The spin-spin distance was found to be 5.0 +/- 0.2 A.

Observer-selective double electron–electron-spin resonance, a pulse sequence to improve orientation selection

By pulsed double electron-electron resonance (DEER), distances between spin labels in disordered systems up to 8 nm can be measured. In addition, the relative orientation of the interacting radicals can be determined, provided that the bandwidth of the pulses is sufficiently small. On the other hand, the bandwidth has to exceed the dipolar interaction considerably, because otherwise the DEER modulations become distorted and the modulation depth decreases, making distance determination impossible. Therefore, small bandwidths, i.e. long pulses, place a lower limit on the distance that can be determined. Two new pulse sequences, observer-selective DEER (os-DEER) and dead-time free os-DEER, are introduced that make it possible to use long observer pulses with bandwidths that are smaller than the dipolar interaction. The new pulse sequences do not suffer from the distortions caused by the limited bandwidth of the observer pulses, as demonstrated by measurements on a nitroxide biradical. With observer pulses of 140 ns, i.e., significantly longer than the 32 ns used in the conventional DEER sequence, a dipolar interaction of 7.8 MHz has been measured.

FID detection of EPR and ENDOR spectra at high microwave frequencies.

High-frequency pulsed EPR spectroscopy allows FID detection of EPR spectra owing to the short dead time that can be achieved. This FID detection is particularly attractive for EPR and ENDOR spectroscopy of paramagnetic species that exhibit inhomogeneously broadened EPR lines and short dephasing times. Experiments are reported for the metalloprotein azurin at 275 GHz.

A modification of the commercial ESR900 cryostat to enable three-dimensional electron-paramagnetic-resonance studies of crystals

Complete orientation studies of X-band electron-paramagnetic-resonance spectra of crystals largely benefit from the possibility to measure the spectrum for any orientation of the magnetic field with respect to the crystal without the need to remount the crystal. We report on a modification of a commercial cryostat to allow such experiments down to liquid helium temperatures and demonstrate its performance.