Primary Citation of Related Structures:   5MF2
PubMed Abstract: 
Macromolecular crystallography suffers from two major issues: getting well-diffracting crystals and solving the phase problem inherent to large macromolecules. Here, we describe the first example of a lanthanide complex family named "crystallophore" (Xo4), which contributes to tackling both bottlenecks ...
Macromolecular crystallography suffers from two major issues: getting well-diffracting crystals and solving the phase problem inherent to large macromolecules. Here, we describe the first example of a lanthanide complex family named "crystallophore" (Xo4), which contributes to tackling both bottlenecks. This terbium complex, Tb-Xo4, is an appealing agent for biocrystallography, combining the exceptional phasing power of the Tb(iii) heavy atom with powerful nucleating properties, providing ready-to-use crystals for structure determination. Furthermore, protein/Tb-Xo4 co-crystals can be easily detected and discriminated from other crystalline by-products using luminescence. We demonstrate the potential of this additive for the crystallisation and structure determination of eight proteins, two of whose structures were unknown.
Related Citations: 
Crystal structure of pb9, the distal tail protein of bacteriophage T5: a conserved structural motif among all siphophages. Flayhan, A., Vellieux, F.M., Lurz, R., Maury, O., Contreras-Martel, C., Girard, E., Boulanger, P., Breyton, C. (2014) J Virol 88: 820
Organizational Affiliation: 
Univ. Grenoble Alpes , CEA , CNRS , IBS , F-38000 Grenoble , France . Email: eric.girard@ibs.fr.