The nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE) as a tool to study macromolecular confinement: Elucidation and disentangling of crowding and encapsulation effects.

We propose a methodology to capture short-lived but biophysically important contacts of biomacromolecules using the biomolecule-water nuclear Overhauser effect as an indirect microscope. Thus, instead of probing the direct correlation with the foreign biomolecule, we detect its presence by the disturbance it causes in the surrounding water. In addition, this information obtained is spatially resolved and can thus be attributed to specific sites. We extend this approach to the influence of more than one change in chemical environment and show a methodological way of resolution. This is achieved by taking double differences of corresponding σNOE/σROE ratios of the systems studied and separating specific, unspecific, and intermediate influence. While applied to crowding and encapsulation in this study, this method is generally suitable for any combination of changes in chemical environment.