Microscale vapour diffusion for protein crystallization.
The development of new crystallization platforms via the application of high-throughput technologies has delivered a plethora of crystallization plates suitable for robot-driven and manual setups. However, practically all these plates (except for microfluidic channel chips) are based on a very similar design and well (precipitant):drop (protein) volume ratios. A new type of crystallization plate (microplate) has therefore been developed and tested that still employs the classical vapour-diffusion technique but minimizes the precipitant well volume to 1.2 microl for a 150 nl protein drop setup. This enables a very significant saving on the total bulk of the crystallization screen, hence allowing the application of new, rare and expensive solutions in automated crystallization-screening procedures. Additionally, owing to the very low drop:well volume ratio, the new microplate can significantly accelerate the equilibrium time necessary for crystal nucleation and growth, in many cases shortening the high-throughput crystallization screening process to a few hours.
Korczyńska
Justyna
J
Structural Biology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of York, York YO10 5YW, England.
Hu
Ting Chou
TC
Smith
David K
DK
Jenkins
Joby
J
Lewis
Rob
R
Edwards
Tom
T
Brzozowski
Andrzej M
AM
D001331:Automation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
D011506:Proteins