The recombinant mutant a-amylase inhibitor [R19L]Tendamistat, with Argl9 replaced by Leu, was prepared and its NMR solution structure determined. Based on complete sequence-specific 'H-NMR assignments, 845 nuclear Overhauser effect upper-distance constraints and 156 dihedral angle constraints were collected using two-dimensional homonuclear 'H-NMR experiments. The structure was calculated with the program DIANA, using the redundant dihedral angle constraints strategy for improved convergence. For restrained energy minimization, the programs FANTOM and AM-BER were used. The wild-type NMR solution structure was similarly recalculated from the previously published input of conformational constraints [Kline, A., Braun, W. & Wuthrich, K. (1988) J. Mol. Biol. 204,. For each protein a group of 20 conformers represents a well-defined solution structure, with average root-mean-square-distance values for the backbone atoms of the individual conformers relative to the mean coordinates of 50 pm. The two structures are nearly identical to each other and to the previously published Tendamistat structures in solution and in crystals. The only significant difference is strictly localized near the single amino acid substitution in the presumed active site -Trpl8-Arg(Leu)-Tyr-, i.e. Leu19 and Tyr2O are more precisely defined in the solution structure of IR19LlTendamistat than the corresponding residues Argl9 and Tyr2O in wild-type Tendamistat.Tendamistat is an a-amylase inhibitor from Streptomyces tendue consisting of a 74-amino-acid polypeptide [ 11, which has played a key role in the development of three-dimensional protein-structure determination by NMR spectroscopy in solution [2]. In fact, although the first NMR structure determinations were those of glucagon [3, 41 and protease inhibitor IIA from bull seminal plasma [5], Tendamistat has been considered by many to be the first true high-resolution