Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose Isomerase
Electric fields have been employed to promote macromolecular crystallization for several decades. Although crystals grown in electric fields seem to present higher diffraction quality, these methods are not widespread. For most configurations, electrodes are in direct contact with the protein soluti...
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MDPI AG
2017-07-01
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/7/7/206 |
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author | Evgeniya Rubin Christopher Owen Vivian Stojanoff |
author_facet | Evgeniya Rubin Christopher Owen Vivian Stojanoff |
author_sort | Evgeniya Rubin |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Electric fields have been employed to promote macromolecular crystallization for several decades. Although crystals grown in electric fields seem to present higher diffraction quality, these methods are not widespread. For most configurations, electrodes are in direct contact with the protein solution. Here, we propose a configuration that can be easily extended to standard crystallization methods for which the electrodes are not in direct contact with the protein solution. Furthermore, the proposed electrode configuration supplies an external DC electric field. Glucose Isomerase from Streptomyces rubiginosus crystals were grown at room temperature using the microbatch method in the presence of 1, 2, 4, and 6 kV. Several crystallization trials were carried out for reproducibility and statistical analysis purposes. The comparison with crystals grown in the absence of electric fields showed that crystallization in the presence of electric fields increases the size of crystals, while decreasing the number of nucleations. X-ray diffraction analysis of the crystals showed that those grown in the presence of electric fields are of higher crystal quality. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-11T20:42:53Z |
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id | doaj.art-c9f765a7a3b0411692ba6532b1744f30 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2073-4352 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-11T20:42:53Z |
publishDate | 2017-07-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
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series | Crystals |
spelling | doaj.art-c9f765a7a3b0411692ba6532b1744f302022-12-22T04:04:10ZengMDPI AGCrystals2073-43522017-07-017720610.3390/cryst7070206cryst7070206Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose IsomeraseEvgeniya Rubin0Christopher Owen1Vivian Stojanoff2National Syncrhotron Light Source, Upton, NY 11973, USANational Syncrhotron Light Source, Upton, NY 11973, USANational Syncrhotron Light Source, Upton, NY 11973, USAElectric fields have been employed to promote macromolecular crystallization for several decades. Although crystals grown in electric fields seem to present higher diffraction quality, these methods are not widespread. For most configurations, electrodes are in direct contact with the protein solution. Here, we propose a configuration that can be easily extended to standard crystallization methods for which the electrodes are not in direct contact with the protein solution. Furthermore, the proposed electrode configuration supplies an external DC electric field. Glucose Isomerase from Streptomyces rubiginosus crystals were grown at room temperature using the microbatch method in the presence of 1, 2, 4, and 6 kV. Several crystallization trials were carried out for reproducibility and statistical analysis purposes. The comparison with crystals grown in the absence of electric fields showed that crystallization in the presence of electric fields increases the size of crystals, while decreasing the number of nucleations. X-ray diffraction analysis of the crystals showed that those grown in the presence of electric fields are of higher crystal quality.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/7/7/206crystallizationmacromolecular crystallographyexternal DC electric fieldmicrobatch method |
spellingShingle | Evgeniya Rubin Christopher Owen Vivian Stojanoff Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose Isomerase Crystals crystallization macromolecular crystallography external DC electric field microbatch method |
title | Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose Isomerase |
title_full | Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose Isomerase |
title_fullStr | Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose Isomerase |
title_full_unstemmed | Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose Isomerase |
title_short | Crystallization under an External Electric Field: A Case Study of Glucose Isomerase |
title_sort | crystallization under an external electric field a case study of glucose isomerase |
topic | crystallization macromolecular crystallography external DC electric field microbatch method |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/7/7/206 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT evgeniyarubin crystallizationunderanexternalelectricfieldacasestudyofglucoseisomerase AT christopherowen crystallizationunderanexternalelectricfieldacasestudyofglucoseisomerase AT vivianstojanoff crystallizationunderanexternalelectricfieldacasestudyofglucoseisomerase |