Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of a Perdeuterated Amphipol

Fabrice Giusti, Jutta Rieger, Laurent J. Catoire, Shuo Qian, Antonio N. Calabrese, Thomas G. Watkinson, Marina Casiraghi, Sheena E. Radford, Alison E. Ashcroft, Jean Luc Popot

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Amphipols are short amphipathic polymers that can substitute for detergents at the hydrophobic surface of membrane proteins (MPs), keeping them soluble in the absence of detergents while stabilizing them. The most widely used amphipol, known as A8-35, is comprised of a polyacrylic acid (PAA) main chain grafted with octylamine and isopropylamine. Among its many applications, A8-35 has proven particularly useful for solution-state NMR studies of MPs, for which it can be desirable to eliminate signals originating from the protons of the surfactant. In the present work, we describe the synthesis and properties of perdeuterated A8-35 (perDAPol). Perdeuterated PAA was obtained by radical polymerization of deuterated acrylic acid. It was subsequently grafted with deuterated amines, yielding perDAPol. The number-average molar mass of hydrogenated and perDAPol, ~4 and ~5 kDa, respectively, was deduced from that of their PAA precursors, determined by size exclusion chromatography in tetrahydrofuran following permethylation. Electrospray ionization–ion mobility spectrometry–mass spectrometry measurements show the molar mass and distribution of the two APols to be very similar. Upon neutron scattering, the contrast match point of perDAPol is found to be ~120 % D2O. In 1H-1H nuclear overhauser effect NMR spectra, its contribution is reduced to ~6 % of that of hydrogenated A8-35, making it suitable for extended uses in NMR spectroscopy. PerDAPol ought to also be of use for inelastic neutron scattering studies of the dynamics of APol-trapped MPs, as well as small-angle neutron scattering and analytical ultracentrifugation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)909-924
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Membrane Biology
Volume247
Issue number9-10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 14 2014

Funding

Particular thanks are due to Alain Fradet (UPMC - CNRS, IPCM) for his support and his comments on the manuscript, to Gaëlle Pembouong and Marion Chenal (same laboratory) for assistance with SEC analyses, to Christophe Tribet (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris) for his kind help at interpreting the results of the SEC experiments and to the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the UK for funding for the Synapt HDMS mass spectrometer (BB/E012558/1), ANC (BB/K000659/1) and TGW (BB/K501827/1). This work was supported by the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), by Université Paris-7 Denis Diderot, by grant “DYNAMO,” ANR-11-LABX-0011-01 from the French “Initiative d’Excellence” program, by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, US Department of Energy (Bio-SANS, operated by ORNL’s Center for Structural Molecular Biology) and the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy (ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor).

Keywords

  • A8-35
  • Amphipol
  • Deuteration
  • Mass spectrometry
  • NMR

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