Open AccessRecombinant production, crystallization and preliminary X‐ray analysis of PCNA from the psychrophilic archaeon Methanococcoides burtonii DSM 6242
Author(s) -
ByrneSteele Miranda L.,
Hughes Ronny C.,
Ng Joseph D.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section f
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1744-3091
DOI - 10.1107/s1744309109037075
Subject(s) - recombinant dna , proliferating cell nuclear antigen , crystallization , crystallography , microbiology and biotechnology , escherichia coli , biology , dna , materials science , chemistry , biochemistry , gene , organic chemistry
Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a DNA‐clamping protein that is responsible for increasing the processivity of the replicative polymerases during DNA replication and repair. The PCNA from the eurypsychrophilic archaeon Methanococcoides burtonii DSM 6242 (MbPCNA) has been targeted for protein structural studies. A recombinant expression system has been created that overproduces MbPCNA with an N‐terminal hexahistidine affinity tag in Escherichia coli . As a result, recombinant MbPCNA with a molecular mass of 28.3 kDa has been purified to at least 95% homogeneity and crystallized by vapor‐diffusion equilibration. Preliminary X‐ray analysis revealed a trigonal hexagonal R 3 space group, with unit‐cell parameters a = b = 102.5, c = 97.5 Å. A single MbPCNA crystal was subjected to complete diffraction data‐set collection using synchrotron radiation and reflections were measured to 2.40 Å resolution. The diffraction data were of suitable quality for indexing and scaling and an unrefined molecular‐replacement solution has been obtained.