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A gentle vapor‐diffusion technique for cross‐linking of protein crystals for cryocrystallography
Author(s) -
Lusty Carol J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s002188989801053x
Subject(s) - protein crystallization , crystallization , diffusion , materials science , crystallography , glutaraldehyde , diffraction , lattice (music) , chemical physics , chemistry , thermodynamics , optics , chromatography , physics , organic chemistry , acoustics
Protein crystals have been cross‐linked by a gentle technique whereby glutaraldehyde is introduced by vapor diffusion into the crystallization droplet containing the crystals. Diffraction analyses of crystals of three different proteins show that cross‐linking prevents, in a large part, the lattice disorder normally observed on rapid cooling of these crystals. The diffraction results suggest that this cross‐linking procedure, performed as a simple extension of the standard vapor‐diffusion crystallization experiment, may generally aid in the cooling of fragile protein crystals for which standard procedures of cryopreservation prove inadequate.