Open AccessImprovement of crystal quality by surface mutations of β‐lactamase Toho‐1
Author(s) -
Shimamura Tatsuro,
Nitanai Yasushi,
Uchiyama Takuro,
Matsuzawa Hiroshi
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section f
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1744-3091
DOI - 10.1107/s1744309109008240
Subject(s) - crystal (programming language) , materials science , quality (philosophy) , surface (topology) , crystallography , genetics , biology , chemistry , physics , computer science , geometry , mathematics , programming language , quantum mechanics
The β‐lactamase Toho‐1 exhibits a strong tendency to form merohedrally twinned crystals. Here, the crystal quality of Toho‐1 was improved by using surface modification to remove a sulfate ion involved in crystal packing. The surface‐modified Toho‐1 variant (R274N/R276N) was crystallized under similar conditions to those used for wild‐type Toho‐1. R274N/R276N did not form merohedrally twinned crystals. The crystals diffracted to a significantly higher resolution (∼0.97 Å) than the wild‐type crystals (1.65 Å); they belonged to the same space group and had almost identical unit‐cell parameters to those of wild‐type Toho‐1.