Methods of translating NMR proton distances into their corresponding heavy atom distances for protein structure prediction with limited experimental data.

This paper proposes a strategy to translate experimental 1H NMR proton distance restraints into their corresponding heavy atom distance restraints for the purpose of protein structure prediction. The relationships between interproton distances and the corresponding heavy atom distances are determined by studying well-resolved X-ray protein structures. The data from the interproton distances of amide protons, alpha-protons, beta-protons and side chain methyl protons are plotted against the corresponding heavy atoms in scatter plots and then fitted with linear equations for lower bounds, upper bounds and optimal fits. We also transform the scatter plots into two-dimensional heat maps and three-dimensional histograms, which identify the regions where data points concentrate. The common interproton distances between amide protons, alpha-protons, beta-protons in alpha-helices, anti-parallel beta-sheets and parallel beta-sheets are also tabulated. We have found several patterns emerging from the distance relationships between heavy atom pairs and their corresponding proton pairs. All our upper bound, lower bound and optimal fit results for translating the interproton distance into their corresponding heavy atom distances are tabulated.