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A cryocooling technique for protein crystals grown by dialysis from volatile solvents
Author(s) -
Fernandez Elias J.,
Joachimiak Andrzej,
Lolis Elias
Publication year - 2000
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/s0021889899012406
Subject(s) - protein crystallization , crystallization , crystal (programming language) , evaporation , dialysis , capillary action , materials science , quartz , thermite , chemistry , crystallography , chemical engineering , chromatography , organic chemistry , composite material , aluminium , medicine , physics , computer science , thermodynamics , programming language , engineering
The transfer of protein crystals from the original crystallization environment to cryoprotectants, heavy‐atom solutions, or quartz capillary tubes, exposes crystal droplets to conditions that can cause evaporation of the droplet and damage to the crystal. This problem is particularly acute for crystals grown from volatile solvents or that are otherwise air‐sensitive. Here a method that overcomes this problem is applied to crystals of macrophage inflammatory protein II encoded by herpesvirus‐8. The method is based on dialysis and makes use of a dialysis adaptor that can be used with 24‐well crystallization plates. This method permits the transfer of crystals to cryoprotectant conditions with greater ease and lowers the risk of mechanical damage relative to other available methods.