Controlled dehydration improves the diffraction quality of two RNA crystals.
Post-crystallization dehydration methods, applying either vapor diffusion or humidity control devices, have been widely used to improve the diffraction quality of protein crystals. Despite the fact that RNA crystals tend to diffract poorly, there is a dearth of reports on the application of dehydration methods to improve the diffraction quality of RNA crystals.



We use dehydration techniques with a Free Mounting System (FMS, a humidity control device) to recover the poor diffraction quality of RNA crystals. These approaches were applied to RNA constructs that model various RNA-mediated repeat expansion disorders.



The method we describe herein could serve as a general tool to improve diffraction quality of RNA crystals to facilitate structure determinations.
X-ray Core Facility, The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida, 130 Scripps Way, Jupiter, FL, 33458, USA. hajpark@scripps.edu.
HaJeung
0000-0003-4898-7919
H
Park
Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida, 130 Scripps Way, Jupiter, FL, 33458, USA.
Tuan
T
Tran
Unit of Polar Genomics, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea.|Department of Polar Sciences, University of Science and Technology, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea.
Jun Hyuck
JH
Lee
Unit of Polar Genomics, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea.|Department of Polar Sciences, University of Science and Technology, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea.
Hyun
H
Park
Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida, 130 Scripps Way, Jupiter, FL, 33458, USA. disney@scripps.edu.
Matthew D
MD
Disney
D001483:Base Sequence; D003460:Crystallization; D003890:Desiccation; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
D012313:RNA
Crystal dehydration; Free mounting system; Post-crystallization modification; RNA; Repeat expansion