Chapter 10: Small Paramagnetic Co-solute Molecules
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Published:03 Aug 2018
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Special Collection: 2018 ebook collectionSeries: New Developments in NMR
T. Madl and F. A. A. Mulder, in Paramagnetism in Experimental Biomolecular NMR, ed. C. Luchinat, G. Parigi, and E. Ravera, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2018, ch. 10, pp. 283-309.
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Small co-solute molecules containing unpaired electrons can impart strong perturbations on nuclear shielding and nuclear relaxation of dissolved compounds, and thereby form a potent class of non-covalent probes for molecular science. These paramagnetic co-solutes range from exquisite lanthanoid and transition metal complexes to a molecule as simple as dioxygen. In this chapter, we discuss the various effects that can be observed due to paramagnetic co-solutes, and we highlight how these effects have spurred the buildout of their application to protein science. For example, dioxygen is a very sensitive probe able to identify internal cavities in proteins, whereas neutral gadolinium chelates have become key in the structure determination of protein complexes in solution.