Most books on Protein NMR focus on theoretical aspects and pulse sequences with only little space devoted to resonance assignment and structure calculations. At the same time many software manuals provide detailed information on how to use the software, but assume prior knowledge of the concepts of assignment and structure calculation. This has produced a gap in this area which these webpages aim to bridge by describing the concepts of assignment in detail with the help of many illustrations. Much space and discussion is devoted to practical aspects.
The implementation of protein NMR assignment is described using the program CCPNmr Analysis. This program has been developed by CCPN and actively seeks input from the NMR community. CCPNmr Analysis is based on the detailed and well thought-out CCPN Data Model which has the advantage (a) that it feeds directly into the CCPN Format Converter thus simplifying the import from and export to other programs, and (b) that as more and more NMR-related programs adopt the CCPN Data Model it is likely to take on a key role in NMR data management – in a similar way to CCP4 for protein X-ray crystallography. CCPNmr Analysis is already one of the best assignment programs available while still being developed and provides excellent support via the CCPN Mailing List (a manual is also available). (Although I now work for the CCPN group, these webpages and my recommendation to use this program far predate this!)
Webpages include:
- description of several resonance assignment strategies
- simple descriptions and discussions of many multidimensional NMR experiments commonly used in protein NMR
- basic usage of CCPNmr Analysis (versions 1 and 2)
- how to make publication quality figures using CCPNmr Analysis
- advice for using CCPNmr Analysis with solid-state MAS NMR data
- tutorial on protein assignment using solid-state MAS NMR data
- description of isotopic labelling strategies commonly used in protein NMR
- links to a large number of protein NMR software packages
- suggested literature for further reading
- links to other useful NMR webpages
- Glossary