Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Observation of α-Synuclein Membrane Interaction by Monitoring the Acetylation Reactivity of Its Lysine Side Chains

The interaction between α-synuclein (αS) protein and lipid membranes is key to its role in synaptic vesicle homeostasis and plays a role in initiating fibril formation, which is implicated in Parkinson’s disease. The natural state of αS inside the cell is generally believed to be intrinsically disordered, but chemical cross-linking experiments provided evidence of a tetrameric arrangement, which was reported to be rich in α-helical secondary structure based on circular dichroism (CD). Cross-linking relies on chemical modification of the protein’s Lys Ce amino groups, commonly by glutaraldehyde, or by disuccinimidyl glutarate (DSG), with the latter agent preferred for cellular assays. We used ultra-high-resolution homonuclear decoupled nuclear magnetic resonance experiments to probe the reactivity of the 15 αS Lys residues toward N-succinimidyl acetate, effectively half the DSG cross-linker, which results in acetylation of Lys. The intensities of both side chain and backbone amide signals of acetylated Lys...