Motion at the active site of [(4-fluorophenyl)sulfonyl]chymotrypsin.

Fluorine and deuterium NMR relaxation studies have been used to examine the motion of the 4-fluorophenyl ring attached to the active site of [(4-fluorophenyl)sulfonyl]-alpha-chymotrypsin at pH 4. Analysis of the results indicates that rotation about the 2-fold axis of this ring is reasonably rapid, though not as fast as in tosylchymotrypsin. Two-dimensional (2D) nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs) were used to suggest the shifts of those protons of the enzyme close enough to the fluorine nucleus to lead to relaxation; important proton-fluorine dipolar relaxation contributions arise from protons with shifts of 7.4 +/- 0.3 ppm and between 4.0 and 5.4 ppm. Specific deuteration permits the assignment of the first of these to the protons ortho to the fluorine while serine-189, cysteines-191 and -220, and methionine-192 are suggested as possible bearers of the other protons. The fluorine chemical shift effect observed for the native conformation of this protein is 9 ppm downfield of the shift observed with the denatured protein; this large shift may be the result of van der Waals interactions between the fluorine and one or more of the protons whose signals appear in the 2D NOE experiments.