Enhancement of MAD/MIR phasing at low resolution and a new procedure for automatic phase extension

To achieve de novo protein structure determination of challenging cases, multi-wavelength anomalous diffraction(MAD) and multiple isomorphous replacement(MIR) phasing can be powerful tools to obtain low-resolution initial phases from heavy-atom derivative datasets, then phase extension is needed against high-resolution data to obtain accurate structures.In this context, we propose a direct-methods procedure here that could improve the initial low-resolution MAD/MIR phase quality.And accordingly, an automated process for extending initial phases to high resolution is also described.These two procedures are both implanted in the newly released IPCAS pipeline.Three cases are used to perform the test, including one set of 4.17 ? MAD data from a membrane protein and two sets of MAD/MIR data with derivatives truncated down to 6.80 ? and 6.90 ?, respectively.All the results have shown that the initial phases generated from the direct-methods procedure are better than that from the conventional MAD/MIR methods.The automated phase extensions for the latter two cases starting from 6.80 ? to 3.00 ? and 6.90 ? to 2.80 ? are proved to be successful, leading to complete models.This may provide convenient and reliable tools for phase improvement and phase extension in difficult low-resolution tasks.

Crystal structure of thermostable catechol 2,3-dioxygenase determined by multiwavelength anomalous dispersion method

The selenomethionyl derivative of the thermo-stable catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (SeMet-TC23O) is expressed, purified and crystallized. By using multiwave length anoma-lous dispersion (MAD) phasing techniques, the crystal structure of TC23O at 0.3 nm resolutions is determined. TC23O is a homotetramer. Each monomer is composed of N-terminal and C-terminal domains (residues 1-153 and 153-319, respectively). The two domains are proximately symmetric by a non-crystallographic axis. Each domain contains two characteristic motifs which are found in almost all of extradial dioxygenases.

Crystallographic Studies of Cephalosporin Acylase from Pseudomonas sp. Strain 130

The cephalosporin acylases are a group of enzymes that hydrolyze cephalosporin C and/or glutaryl 7 aminocephalosporanic acid to produce 7 aminocephalosporanic acid. The cephalosporin acylase from Pseudomonas sp. strain 130 was crystallized in two different forms suitable for structural studies. A tetragonal crystal form diffracted to 0.24 nm belonged to the space group P4 12 12. There was one αβ heterodimer per asymmetric unit. A second crystal form diffracted to 0.21 nm belonged to the space group P2 1. There was four αβ heterodimers per asymmetric unit. The tetragonal crystal structure of CA 130 was determined using the multiwavelength anomalous diffraction method and the P2 1 crystal structure was then determined using the molecular replacement method.