Acta Crystallographica Section D

Biological Crystallography

Volume 63, Part 3 (March 2007)

research papers

Acta Cryst. (2007). D63, 310-318 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444906053303 ]

A novel strategy for the crystallization of proteins: X-ray diffraction validation

S. B. Larson, J. S. Day, R. Cudney and A. McPherson

Abstract: Recently, the hypothesis was advanced that protein crystallization could be driven by the inclusion of small molecules rich in hydrogen-bonding, hydrophobic and electrostatic bonding possibilities. Conventional organic and biologically active molecules would promote lattice formation by their mediation of intermolecular interactions in crystals. The results of an extensive series of crystallization experiments strongly supported the idea. Here, difference Fourier X-ray diffraction analyses of nine crystals grown in the experiments are presented, which convincingly demonstrate the validity of the hypothesis and illustrate some of the ways in which small molecules can participate in lattice interactions.

Keywords: crystallization; small molecules.