The goal of the proposed research is to develop, validate, and apply electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) methodology for measuring distances in non-crystalline biological systems. The unique power of EPR among the many techniques for measuring distances is that the paramagnetic centers may be native or added via site-directed mutagenesis, the electron spin dipole moment is large enough to yield long-range interactions, and EPR is sensitive only to the paramagnetic centers, even deeply buried in vast numbers of nuclear spins or light-absorbing species. The distance information is in the dipolar interaction between electron spins, which can be measured by continuous wave (CW) or pulsed EPR techniques. This proposal emphasizes X-band and Q-band pulse techniques because they measure the impact of spin-spin interaction on spin packets directly, rather than requiring interpretation of broadened CW spectra. Q-band offers enhanced sensitivity, spectral dispersion, and orientation selection. In the current funding period we developed saturation recovery and spin echo methods for measuring distances between rapidly-relaxing heme Fe(III) and a nitroxyl radical. In the proposed funding period we will address unanswered questions related to these techniques and extend them to other iron centers - the iron-sulfur cluster in electron transfer flavoprotein ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF-QO) and the non-heme iron in iron enterobactin (FeEnt) bound to iron protein A (FepA). These systems provide the opportunity to examine the effect of electron spin delocalization (ETF-QO) on the distance measurements and the effect of iron energy level splittings comparable to the EPR quantum (FepA). Pulsed double electron-electron resonance (DEER) is a complementary method to measure distances between two slowly relaxing paramagnetic centers, and we propose to enhance its utility for biological samples. Two inter-related themes extend across the three specific aims - orientation selection and conformational flexibility. The methods that we develop will permit us to address important biological questions raised by our collaborators. We will determine the conformational change in the tonB box of iron protein A, characterize structure changes in the redox active sites of electron transfer flavoprotein ubiquinone reductase, and elucidate the mechanism of DNA melting by large tumor antigen.
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