[The pre-experiment on space crystallization of pig heart mitochondrial F1-ATPase]

ATP synthase (H(+)-ATPase) plays a key role in oxidative phosphorylation. Its catalytic moiety F1-ATPase is under intense structural study because of different crystallographic results and diverse hypotheses of its catalytic mechanism. To obtain high quality crystals, F1-ATPase sample is going to be carried to outer space by recovable satellite for crystal growth under microgravity. And to make it suitable for space crystal growth, F1-ATPase was purified from pig heart and the conditions were optimized for its maintenance, transportation, and crystallization. By using hanging drop vapor diffusion method and sitting drop vapor diffusion method, the crystals were obtained within 5 d and with a size of 0.1 mm x 0.1 mm x 0.l mm on the 7th day. The reproducibility of these experiments is also good.