Premium
Guidelines for the successful generation of protein–ligand complex crystals
Author(s) -
Müller Ilka
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section d
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.374
H-Index - 138
ISSN - 2059-7983
DOI - 10.1107/s2059798316020271
Subject(s) - troubleshooting , crystallization , protein crystallization , construct (python library) , ligand (biochemistry) , protein expression , computer science , synchrotron , crystallography , computational biology , chemistry , biology , engineering , physics , chemical engineering , biochemistry , receptor , nuclear physics , gene , programming language , operating system
With continuous technical improvements at synchrotron facilities, data‐collection rates have increased dramatically. This makes it possible to collect diffraction data for hundreds of protein–ligand complexes within a day, provided that a suitable crystal system is at hand. However, developing a suitable crystal system can prove challenging, exceeding the timescale of data collection by several orders of magnitude. Firstly, a useful crystallization construct of the protein of interest needs to be chosen and its expression and purification optimized, before screening for suitable crystallization and soaking conditions can start. This article reviews recent publications analysing large data sets of crystallization trials, with the aim of identifying factors that do or do not make a good crystallization construct, and gives guidance in the design of an expression construct. It provides an overview of common protein‐expression systems, addresses how ligand binding can be both help and hindrance for protein purification, and describes ligand co‐crystallization and soaking, with an emphasis on troubleshooting.