Abstract
A number of crystal structures of membrane proteins have been reported, providing structural bases for physiologically important processes. However, the snapshots from the crystal structures do not necessarily provide sufficient information on understanding the functional mechanism of the membrane proteins. Solution NMR is a complementary method of X-ray crystallography, which reveals structural change and dynamics related to the functions. Here, we review what in membrane proteins can be analyzed by solution NMR, and its applications to functional analyses of membrane proteins.
