Improving Protein Crystal Quality by the Without-Oil Microbatch Method: Crystallization and Preliminary X-ray Diffraction Analysis of Glutathione Synthetase from Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Antonello Merlino¹  Irene Russo Krauss¹  Antonella Albino²  Andrea Pica¹  Alessandro Vergara¹  Mariorosario Masullo²  Emmanuele De Vendittis² 

[1] Dipartimento di Chimica “Paolo Corradini”, Università di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo, Via Cinthia, Naples I-80126, Italy; E-Mails:;Dipartimento di Biochimica e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università di Napoli Federico II, Via Pansini 5, Naples I-80131, Italy; E-Mails:

关键词: crystal quality;    without-oil microbatch;    glutathione synthetase;    psychrophile;    X-ray crystallography;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms12096312

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Glutathione synthetases catalyze the ATP-dependent synthesis of glutathione from l-γ-glutamyl- l-cysteine and glycine. Although these enzymes have been sequenced and characterized from a variety of biological sources, their exact catalytic mechanism is not fully understood and nothing is known about their adaptation at extremophilic environments. Glutathione synthetase from the Antarctic eubacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis (PhGshB) has been expressed, purified and successfully crystallized. An overall improvement of the crystal quality has been obtained by adapting the crystal growth conditions found with vapor diffusion experiments to the without-oil microbatch method. The best crystals of PhGshB diffract to 2.34 Å resolution and belong to space group P2₁2₁2₁, with unit-cell parameters a = 83.28 Å, b = 119.88 Å, c = 159.82 Å. Refinement of the model, obtained using phases derived from the structure of the same enzyme from Escherichia coli by molecular replacement, is in progress. The structural determination will provide the first structural characterization of a psychrophilic glutathione synthetase reported to date.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.