Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of blasticidin S deaminase from Aspergillus terreus

Blasticidin S deaminase from Aspergillus terreus was crystallized with polyethylene glycol 8000. Two types of crystals were grown under the same crystallization conditions. One type grew as thin plates, while the other had a rhombic shape. The rhombic shaped crystal was suitable for high-resolution crystal structure analysis. Precession photographs and diffraction data showed that the crystal belonged to orthorhombic space group P212121, with unit-cell dimensions a = 70.33, b = 146.56 and c = 56.48 A. The calculated Vm value was acceptable when a tetramer of the enzyme was contained in an asymmetric unit. Preliminary diffraction data were collected to a resolution of 2.0 A with good statistics.