The structure of DinB from Geobacillus stearothermophilus: a representative of a unique four-helix-bundle superfamily.

The crystal structure of the dinB gene product from Geobacillus stearothermophilus (GsDinB) is reported at 2.5 A resolution. The dinB gene is one of the DNA-damage-induced genes and the corresponding protein, DinB, is the founding member of a Pfam family with no known function.

Protein crystallization by surface entropy reduction: optimization of the SER strategy.

A strategy of rationally engineering protein surfaces with the aim of obtaining mutants that are distinctly more susceptible to crystallization than the wild-type protein has previously been suggested. The strategy relies on replacing small clusters of two to three surface residues characterized by high conformational entropy with alanines. This surface entropy reduction (or SER) method has proven to be an effective salvage pathway for proteins that are difficult to crystallize.