Premium
Correlations of atomic movements in lysozyme crystals
Author(s) -
Clarage James B.,
Clarage Michael S.,
Phillips Walter C.,
Sweet Robert M.,
Caspar Donald L. D.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
proteins: structure, function, and bioinformatics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.699
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0134
pISSN - 0887-3585
DOI - 10.1002/prot.340120208
Subject(s) - triclinic crystal system , tetragonal crystal system , chemistry , crystallography , scattering , molecular physics , mean squared displacement , diffraction , crystal (programming language) , crystal structure , condensed matter physics , physics , molecular dynamics , computational chemistry , optics , programming language , computer science
Diffuse scattering data have been collected on two crystal forms of lysozyme, tetragonal and triclinic, using synchrotron radiation. The observed diffraction patterns were simulated using an exact theory for simple model crystals which relates the diffuse scattering intensity distribution to the amplitudes and correlations of atomic movements. Although the mean square displacements in the tetragonal form are twice that in the triclinic crystal, the predominent component of atomic movement in both crystals is accounted for by short‐range coupled motions where displacement correlations decay exponentially as a function of atomic separation, with a relaxation distance of ≈ 6 Å. Lattice coupled movements with a correlation distance ≈ 50 Å account for only about 5–10% of the total atomic mean square displacements in the protein crystals. The results contradict various presumptions that the disorder in protein crystals can be modeled predominantly by elastic vibrations or rigid body movements.