Dramatic improvement of crystal quality for low-temperature-grown rabbit muscle aldolase

Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2010 May 1;66(Pt 5):595-600. doi: 10.1107/S1744309110011875. Epub 2010 Apr 30.

Abstract

Rabbit muscle aldolase (RMA) was crystallized in complex with the low-complexity domain (LC4) of sorting nexin 9. Monoclinic crystals were obtained at room temperature that displayed large mosaicity and poor X-ray diffraction. However, orthorhombic RMA-LC4 crystals grown at 277 K under similar conditions exhibited low mosaicity, allowing data collection to 2.2 A Bragg spacing and structure determination. It was concluded that the improvement of crystal quality as indicated by the higher resolution of the new RMA-LC4 complex crystals was a consequence of the introduction of new lattice contacts at lower temperature. The lattice contacts corresponded to an increased number of interactions between high-entropy side chains that mitigate the lattice strain incurred upon cryocooling and accompanying mosaic spread increases. The thermodynamically unfavorable immobilization of high-entropy side chains used in lattice formation was compensated by an entropic increase in the bulk-solvent content owing to the greater solvent content of the crystal lattice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Crystallization
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase / chemistry*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Muscle, Skeletal / enzymology*
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Rabbits
  • Temperature
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase