title: Engineering of recombinant crystallization chaperones.
abstract: The preparation of diffraction quality crystals remains the major bottleneck in macromolecular X-ray crystallography. A crystallization chaperone is an auxiliary protein, such as fragments of monoclonal antibodies, that binds to and increases the crystallization probability of a target molecule of interest. Such chaperones reduce conformational heterogeneity, mask counterproductive surfaces while extending surfaces predisposed to forming crystal contacts, and provide phasing information. Crystallization chaperones generated using recombinant technologies have emerged as superior alternatives that increase the throughput and eliminate inherent limitations associated with antibody production by animal immunization and the hybridoma technology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, 929 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. skoide@uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Shohei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koide
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000378:metabolism; D003460:Crystallization; D006801:Humans; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D011994:Recombinant Proteins