Liesegang-like patterns of Toll crystals grown in gel.

ABSTRACT: Generating high-quality crystals remains a bottleneck in biological and materials sciences. Here a counter-diffusion method was used to improve the X-ray diffraction quality of the N-terminal domain of Drosophila melanogaster Toll receptor crystals. It was observed that crystallization occurred with a peculiar pattern along the capillary resembling Liesegang bands; this phenomenon is described at both macroscopic and atomic levels. It was found that bands appeared for native protein as well as for co-crystals of magic triangle (I3C)-bound protein even though they crystallize in different space groups. Crystallization occurred with a linear recurrence independent of the precipitant concentration and a protein-specific spacing coefficient. Bandwidth varied along the capillary, oscilla

SUBMITTER: Gangloff M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3627410 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature