An analysis of subdomain orientation, conformational change and disorder in relation to crystal packing of aspartic proteinases.

The analysis reported here describes detailed structural studies of endothiapepsin (the aspartic proteinase from Endothia parasitica), with and without bound inhibitors, and human pepsin 3b. Comparison of multiple crystal structures of members of the aspartic proteinase family has revealed small but significant differences in domain orientation in different crystal forms. In this paper, it is shown that these differences in domain orientation do not necessarily correlate with the presence or absence of bound inhibitors, but appear to stem at least partly from crystal contacts mediated by sulfate ions.

Crystallization and initial X-ray diffraction studies of scaffolding protein (gp7) of bacteriophage phi29.

The Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage phi29 scaffolding protein (gp7) has been crystallized by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method at 293 K. Two new distinct crystal forms that both differed from a previously crystallized and solved scaffolding protein were grown under the same conditions. Form I belongs to the primitive tetragonal space group P4(1)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 77.

Crystallization and X-ray analysis of the Y75N mutant of Mucor pusillus pepsin complexed with inhibitor.

Y75N mutant Mucor pusillus pepsin has been overexpressed in yeast, purified and cocrystallized with the iodine-containing human renin inhibitor CP-113972 [(2R,3S]-isopropyl 3-[(L-prolyl-p-iodo-L-phenylalanyl-S-methyl-cysteinyl)amino-4]-cyclohexyl-2-hydroxybutanoate] for X-ray crystallography. Tetragonal complex crystals with space group P4(3)2(1)2 were produced by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method and diffracted to 3.0 A.

Bacteriophage phi29 scaffolding protein gp7 before and after prohead assembly.

Three-dimensional structures of the double-stranded DNA bacteriophage phi29 scaffolding protein (gp7) before and after prohead assembly have been determined at resolutions of 2.2 and 2.8 A, respectively.