Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)is one of the premiere biophysical methods that can be applied for addressing the structure and dynamics of biomolecules, including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. It illustrates the general problem of determining the average biomolecular structure, including the motional mean-square amplitudes and rates of the fluctuations. Lineshape and relaxtion studies give us a view into the molecular properties under different environments. To help the understanding of NMR theory, both lineshape and relaxation experiments are conducted with hexamethylbezene (HMB). This chemical compound with a simple structure serves as a perfect test molecule. Because of its highly symmetric structure, its motions are not very difficult to understand. The results for HMB set benchmarks for other more complicated systems like membrane proteins. After accumulating a large data set on HMB, we also proceed to develop a completely new method of data analysis, which yields the spectral densities in a body-fixed frame revealing internal motions of the system. Among the possible applications of solid-state NMR spectroscopy, we study the light activation mechanism of visual rhodopsin in lipid membranes. As a prototype of G-protein-coupled receptors, which are a large class of membrane proteins, the cofactor isomerization is triggered by photon absorption, and the local structural change is then propagated to a large-scale conformational change of the protein. Facilitation of the binding of transducin then passes along the visual signal to downstream effector proteins like transducin. To study this process, we introduce 2H labels into the rhodopsin chromophore retinal and the C-terminal peptide of transducin to probe the local structure and dynamics of these two hotspots of the rhodopsin activation process. In addition to the examination of local sites with solid-state 2H NMR spectroscopy, wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) provides us the chance of looking at the overall conformational changes through difference scattering profiles. Although the resolution of this method is not as high as NMR spectroscopy, which gives information on atomic scale, the early activation probing is possible because of the short duration of the optical pump and X-ray probe lasers. We can thus visualize the energy dissipation process by observing and comparing the difference scattering profiles at different times after the light activation moments.

This thesis focus on the analysis of spin-lattice NMRD relaxation profilesmeasured in various complex systems such as proteins, zeolites and ionicliquids. Proton, deuterium and fluoride T1-NMRD relaxation profiles wereobtained from a fast-field cycling (FFC) instrument. It is found that alsopossible to obtain NMRD profiles from the molecular dynamics (MD)simulation trajectories. NMRD Profiles were analyzed by using differentrelaxation models, such as the Solomon-Bloembergen-Morgan (SBM) theoryand the Stochastic Liouville (SL) theory. Paper I described the hydration of protein PrxV obtained from a MDsimulation, and compared with the picture emerges from an analysis byusing a generally accepted relaxation model [appendix C]. The result showsthat the information from NMRD analysis is an averaged picture of watermolecules with similar relaxation times; and the MD simulations containsinformation of all types of interested water molecules with differentresidence times. In paper II NMRD profiles have been used to characterize the hydration ofthe oxygen-evolving complex in state S1 of photosystem II. NMRDexperiments were performed on both intact protein samples and Mndepletedsamples, and characteristic dispersion difference were foundbetween 0.03 MHz to 1 MHz; approximately. Both the SBM theory and theSL theory have been used to explain this dispersion difference, and it isfound that this is due to a paramagnetic enhancement of 1-2 water moleculesnearby ~10 Å from the spin center of the Mn4CaO5 cluster. The result showsthe reorientation of the molecular cluster is in μs time interval. Whencompare these two theories, the SL theory presented a better interpretationbecause parameters obtained from the SBM theory shows they didn’t fulfilthe presupposed perturbation criterion (the Kubo term). Paper III deals with the water dynamics in the restricted/confined spaces inthe zeolite samples (H-ZSM-5 and NH4-ZSM-5) and obtained by proton anddeuterium spin-lattice NMRD profiles. The results show that the spin-latticeNMRD can be used to characterize various zeolites. The temperature has aweak effect on the relaxation rate R1, but the change of different counter ionsmay change the hydration and the translational diffusion pores and givedifferent R1. Proton and fluoride NMRD profiles and MD simulations were both used tostudy the dynamics of BMIM[PF6] in paper IV. Results indicate the reorientation of the molecules are in the ns time regime, and the effectivecorrelation time obtained from 1H and 19F are the same. From the MDsimulation it is found the reorientation of [PF6]- ions is much faster (in ps)compare with BMIM+ ion which moves in the ns time range. With previous results, the FFC NMRD profiles are indeed very informativetools to study the molecular dynamics of complex systems. The MDsimulation can be used as a complementary method to obtain detailedinformation. By combine these two methods, it provide a more colorfulpicture in the study of protein hydration and liquid molecular dynamics.