Within the tumor suppressor protein INK4 (inhibitor
of cyclin-dependent kinase 4) family, p15INK4B
is the smallest and the only one whose structure has not
been determined previously, probably due to the protein's
conformational flexibility and instability. In this work,
multidimensional NMR studies were performed on this protein.
The first tertiary structure was built by comparative modeling
with p16INK4A as the template, followed by restrained
energy minimization with NMR constraints (NOE and H-bonds).
For this purpose, the solution structure of p16INK4A,
whose quality was also limited by similar problems, was
refined with additional NMR experiments conducted on an
800 MHz spectrometer and by structure-based iterative NOE
assignments. The nonhelical regions showed major improvement
with root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) improved from 1.23
to 0.68 Å for backbone heavy atoms. The completion
of p15INK4B coupled with refinement of p16INK4A
made it possible to compare the structures of the four
INK4 members in depth, and to compare the structures of
p16INK4A in the free form and in the p16INK4A-CDK6
complex. This is an important step toward a comprehensive
understanding of the precise functional roles of each INK4
member.