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Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality

Well-diffracting protein crystals are indispensable for X-ray diffraction analysis, which is still the most powerful method for structure-function studies of biomolecules. A promising approach to growing such crystals is the use of porous nucleation-inducing materials. However, while protein crystal...

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Autores principales: Nanev, Christo N., Saridakis, Emmanuel, Govada, Lata, Chayen, Naomi E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9504001/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36142586
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms231810676
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author Nanev, Christo N.
Saridakis, Emmanuel
Govada, Lata
Chayen, Naomi E.
author_facet Nanev, Christo N.
Saridakis, Emmanuel
Govada, Lata
Chayen, Naomi E.
author_sort Nanev, Christo N.
collection PubMed
description Well-diffracting protein crystals are indispensable for X-ray diffraction analysis, which is still the most powerful method for structure-function studies of biomolecules. A promising approach to growing such crystals is the use of porous nucleation-inducing materials. However, while protein crystal nucleation in pores has been thoroughly considered, little attention has been paid to the subsequent growth of crystals. Although the nucleation stage is decisive, it is the subsequent growth of crystals outside the pore that determines their diffraction quality. The molecular-scale mechanism of growth of protein crystals in and outside pores is theoretically considered. Due to the low degree of metastability, the crystals that emerge from the pores grow slowly, which is a prerequisite for better diffraction. This expectation has been corroborated by experiments carried out with several types of porous material, such as bioglass (“Naomi’s Nucleant”), buckypaper, porous gold and porous silicon. Protein crystals grown with the aid of bioglass and buckypaper yield significantly better diffraction quality compared with crystals grown conventionally. In all cases, visually superior crystals are usually obtained. Our theoretical conclusion is that heterogeneous nucleation of a crystal outside the pore is an exceptional case. Rather, the protein crystals nucleating inside the pores continue growing outside them.
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spelling pubmed-95040012022-09-24 Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality Nanev, Christo N. Saridakis, Emmanuel Govada, Lata Chayen, Naomi E. Int J Mol Sci Article Well-diffracting protein crystals are indispensable for X-ray diffraction analysis, which is still the most powerful method for structure-function studies of biomolecules. A promising approach to growing such crystals is the use of porous nucleation-inducing materials. However, while protein crystal nucleation in pores has been thoroughly considered, little attention has been paid to the subsequent growth of crystals. Although the nucleation stage is decisive, it is the subsequent growth of crystals outside the pore that determines their diffraction quality. The molecular-scale mechanism of growth of protein crystals in and outside pores is theoretically considered. Due to the low degree of metastability, the crystals that emerge from the pores grow slowly, which is a prerequisite for better diffraction. This expectation has been corroborated by experiments carried out with several types of porous material, such as bioglass (“Naomi’s Nucleant”), buckypaper, porous gold and porous silicon. Protein crystals grown with the aid of bioglass and buckypaper yield significantly better diffraction quality compared with crystals grown conventionally. In all cases, visually superior crystals are usually obtained. Our theoretical conclusion is that heterogeneous nucleation of a crystal outside the pore is an exceptional case. Rather, the protein crystals nucleating inside the pores continue growing outside them. MDPI 2022-09-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9504001/ /pubmed/36142586 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms231810676 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Nanev, Christo N.
Saridakis, Emmanuel
Govada, Lata
Chayen, Naomi E.
Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality
title Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality
title_full Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality
title_fullStr Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality
title_full_unstemmed Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality
title_short Protein Crystals Nucleated and Grown by Means of Porous Materials Display Improved X-ray Diffraction Quality
title_sort protein crystals nucleated and grown by means of porous materials display improved x-ray diffraction quality
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9504001/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36142586
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms231810676
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