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Re: [ccp4bb] bigger size - > better diffraction?

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CCP4bb <-- 1999 <-- November 1999 <-- 30 November 1999
Previous message:
Subject: Re: bigger size - > better diffraction?
From: Leonard Thomas thomasle {- at -} ITS {- dot -} CALTECH {- dot -} EDU
Date: 2007-04-04
Next message:
Subject: Re: bigger size - > better diffraction?
From: artem {- at -} XTALS {- dot -} ORG artem {- at -} XTALS {- dot -} ORG
Date: 2007-04-04


Subject: Re: bigger size - > better diffraction?
From: Elspeth Garman elspeth {- at -} BIOP {- dot -} OX {- dot -} AC {- dot -} UK
Date: 2007-04-04

For room temperature testing, it is much easuier to use a cryoloop
enclosed in a capillary (with some mother liqour at the top) or the
plastic tubes supplied by MiTeGen as per the method detailed in:

Skrzypczak-Jankun, E., Bianchet, M. A., Amzel, L. M. and Funk Jr., M. O.
(1996). /Acta Cryst./,/ /*D52*, 959-965.

than to capillary mount.
Also, if you do sequential transfer into cryo, try it `in situ' by
pipetting on increasing concetrations and removal of liquid rather than
moving the crystal between wells of higher concentration - mosaicity
should be less.
Good luck
Elspeth

Leonard Thomas wrote:
> The first thing to try before going down the long road of fussing
> with cryo is to take a shot at room temp. and see how your crystal
> diffracts in general. It is true it may be a cryo problem, but if
> the non cryo protected crystals do not diffract then why would one
> expect the cryo protected one to.
>
> As for controlling crystal growth. I would second what Shane wrote
> and try seeding. Also trying the usually additives and varying
> protein concentration/precipitant concentration should help also so.
>
> Len
>
>
> On Apr 4, 2007, at 8:56 AM, Shane Atwell wrote:
>
>> Streak seeding all your trays should give you a better handle on
>> nucleation. You might be too high in protein or precipitant w/o the
>> seeding, hence the showering and rare nice crystals.
>>
>> Varying cryos, or cryo concentrations, or how the cryo is added can
>> help
>> a lot. Try 5 or 6 different cryos at 3 concentrations each. When you
>> have the best nailed down then try sequential transfers of the
>> crystals
>> from low to target concentrations (e.g. into 5% for a couple minutes,
>> then 10, 20, 25%). Also, you can try growing the crystals w/ a bit
>> (5%)
>> or the final conc or cryo already present. Should help in getting them
>> habituated to the cryo.
>>
>> Shane Atwell
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
>>> Behalf Of Jenny
>>> Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:50 AM
>>> To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>>> Subject: [ccp4bb] bigger size - > better diffraction?
>>>
>>> Hi, All,
>>>
>>> I got a crystal that diffracts at 3.3A in house.The crystal
>>> size is about 0.2mm* 0.1mm * 0.2mm. At first I thought the
>>> size is fine,but it turns out the smaller ones diffract
>>> worse.I guess the reason is that
>>> the cell unit is really big (126.292 126.292 134.904 p4212,
>>> pretty big for a 10kD protein, isn't it?)
>>>
>>> So looks like I need to grow bigger crystals in order to get
>>> better diffractions.The problems is ,every time when I set up
>>> trays, the growing conditions is not exactly the same, so I
>>> have to set up a whole tray or maybe even 2 trays , then 2 or
>>> 3 conditions will jump out with good crystals ( 2 or 3
>>> nucleation site ) and some of the others will show lots lots
>>> of small crystals.I used NaCl as the salt, in a 4*6 tray, the
>>> [NaCl] is going from 2.0,2.05,2.1,2.15,....something like
>>> that and 0.05M does make big difference.I used Urea as the
>>> additive in this case ( 25 m ~ 100 mM) and tried
>>> 2+2,3+1,3+2, 3+1 ( 3 uL protein and 1 uL buffer ) is better
>>> than the other two cases.Right now it's growing in room temp
>>> in about a week.And crystals that not fresh got some bubbles
>>> around the edge and didn't diffract well.
>>>
>>> Does anyone have any suggestions that what I could do to
>>> improve the diffraction?
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot.
>>>
>>> Jenny
>>>
>

--
-------------------------------------------------
Dr. Elspeth F. Garman,
Reader in Molecular Biophysics,
Department of Biochemistry,
Rex Richards Building,
University of Oxford, Tel: (44)-1865-275398
South Parks Road, FAX: (44)-1865-275182
OXFORD, OX1 3QU, U.K. E-mail: elspeth@biop.ox.ac.uk

-------------------------------------------------

CCP4bb navigation

CCP4bb <-- 1999 <-- November 1999 <-- 30 November 1999
Previous message:
Subject: Re: bigger size - > better diffraction?
From: Leonard Thomas thomasle {- at -} ITS {- dot -} CALTECH {- dot -} EDU
Date: 2007-04-04
Next message:
Subject: Re: bigger size - > better diffraction?
From: artem {- at -} XTALS {- dot -} ORG artem {- at -} XTALS {- dot -} ORG
Date: 2007-04-04



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