title: Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of the β-catenin homolog HMP-2 from Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: β-Catenin is a multifunctional protein involved in both cell adhesion and Wnt signaling in metazoans. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is unusual in that it expresses four β-catenin paralogs with separate functions. C. elegans HMP-2 participates in cell adhesion but not in Wnt signaling, so structural and biochemical studies of this protein will help in understanding its unusual specialization and the evolution of β-catenin. HMP-2 was expressed, purified and crystallized in two different salt conditions. Crystals grown from a sodium formate condition diffracted to a resolution of 2 Å and belonged to space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 165.2, b = 39.0, c = 101.1 Å, β = 116.7°. Crystals obtained from a lithium sulfate condition diffracted to 3 Å resolution and belonged to space group P43, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 85.3, c = 138.7 Å. Diffraction data were collected and processed from both crystal forms and the structure was solved by molecular replacement. Model refinement is in progress.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hee-Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Departments of Structural Biology and of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: William I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Weis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D003460:Crystallization; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; C442473:HMP-2 protein, C elegans
keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; HMP-2; cell adhesion; β-catenin