The use of controlled dehydration for improvement of protein crystal diffraction quality is increasing in popularity, although there are still relatively few documented examples of success. A study has been carried out to establish whether controlled dehydration could be used to improve the anisotropy of crystals of the core protein of the human proteoglycan glypican-1 ...
The use of controlled dehydration for improvement of protein crystal diffraction quality is increasing in popularity, although there are still relatively few documented examples of success. A study has been carried out to establish whether controlled dehydration could be used to improve the anisotropy of crystals of the core protein of the human proteoglycan glypican-1. Crystals were subjected to controlled dehydration using the HC1 device. The optimal protocol for dehydration was developed by careful investigation of the following parameters: dehydration rate, final relative humidity and total incubation time Tinc. Of these, the most important was shown to be Tinc. After dehydration using the optimal protocol the crystals showed significantly reduced anisotropy and improved electron density, allowing the building of previously disordered parts of the structure.
Related Citations:
Crystal Structure of N-Glycosylated Human Glypican-1 Core Protein: Structure of Two Loops Evolutionarily Conserved in Vertebrate Glypican-1 Svensson, G., Awad, W., Hakansson, M., Mani, K., Logan, D.T. (2012) J Biol Chem 287: 14040
Organizational Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Centre for Molecular Protein Science, Lund University, Box 124, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
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