title: Combining Wet and Dry Lab Techniques to Guide the Crystallization of Large Coiled-coil Containing Proteins.
abstract: Obtaining crystals for structure determination can be a difficult and time consuming proposition for any protein. Coiled-coil proteins and domains are found throughout nature, however, because of their physical properties and tendency to aggregate, they are traditionally viewed as being especially difficult to crystallize. Here, we utilize a variety of quick and simple techniques designed to identify a series of possible domain boundaries for a given coiled-coil protein, and then quickly characterize the behavior of these proteins in solution. With the addition of a strongly fluorescent tag (mRuby2), protein characterization is simple and straightforward. The target protein can be readily visualized under normal lighting and can be quantified with the use of an appropriate imager. The goal is to quickly identify candidates that can be removed from the crystallization pipeline because they are unlikely to succeed, affording more time for the best candidates and fewer funds expended on proteins that do not produce crystals. This process can be iterated to incorporate information gained from initial screening efforts, can be adapted for high-throughput expression and purification procedures, and is augmented by robotic screening for crystallization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.
authors.forename: Jenna K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Zalewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh; Institute of Structural Biology, German Research Center for Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heber
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.
authors.forename: Joshua H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: O'Conor
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hildebrand
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh; andyv@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: VanDemark
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019295:Computational Biology; D003460:Crystallization; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017354:Point Mutation; D000072417:Protein Domains; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014584:User-Computer Interface
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C101060:SHROOM2 protein, human