Systematic analysis of supersaturation and lysozyme crystal quality.
A systematic study of the correlation between supersaturation and protein crystal quality was carried out employing atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray crystallography with synchrotron radiation (SR). The surface morphology and growth rates of hen egg-white (HEW) lysozyme crystals soaked in various supersaturated solutions were first investigated by AFM. The results showed that the formation of two-dimensional islands increased as a function of supersaturation. The growth rate (molecule intake speed) also increased as a function of supersaturation. In order to examine the correlation between the surface morphology, growth rate and the crystal quality, X-ray diffraction experiments were performed. It was confirmed that crystals grown at lower supersaturations diffracted better with higher signal-to-noise ratios, including better agreement between symmetry-related reflections. The results strongly suggested that the molecular misorientation at high supersaturation affected the crystal quality.
Yoshizaki
I
I
Department of Innovative and Engineered Materials, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan. yoshizaki.izumi@nasda.go.jp
Sato
T
T
Igarashi
N
N
Natsuisaka
M
M
Tanaka
N
N
Komatsu
H
H
Yoda
S
S
D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D003460:Crystallization; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D009113:Muramidase / Q000737:chemistry*; D011786:Quality Control
D009113:Muramidase