In vivo protein crystallization opens new routes in structural biology.

Koopmann, Rudolf; Cupelli, Karolina; Redecke, Lars; Nass, Karol; Deponte, Daniel P; White, Thomas A; Stellato, Francesco; Rehders, Dirk et al. · Nat Methods · 2012

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Protein crystallization in cells has been observed several times in nature. However, owing to their small size these crystals have not yet been used for X-ray crystallographic analysis. We prepared nano-sized in vivo-grown crystals of Trypanosoma brucei enzymes and applied the emerging method of free-electron laser-based serial femtosecond crystallography to record interpretable diffraction data. This combined approach will open new opportunities in structural systems biology.

Medical subject headings