What Methods May Be Used to Elucidate the Structures of Purified

Question

What methods may be used to elucidate the structures of purified proteins?
A) X-ray crystallography
B) bioinformatics
C) analysis of amino acid sequence of small fragments
D) NMR spectroscopy
E) both X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy

Accepted Answer

X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy are the most commonly used methods for elucidating the structures of purified proteins. X-ray crystallography is useful in determining the atomic resolution structure of proteins, while NMR spectroscopy is effective in identifying protein folding and dynamics in solution. Bioinformatics and analysis of amino acid sequence of small fragments can help predict the secondary and tertiary structures of proteins, but they do not provide high-resolution information on the protein structure.