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Diffraction quality crystals of PRD1, a 66-MDa dsDNA virus with an internal membrane
Jaana K H Bamford1, Joseph J B Cockburn, Jonathan Diprose
1Institute of Biotechnology and Department of Biosciences, Biocenter 2, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, Viikinkaari 5, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. jaana.bamford@helsinki.fi
Abstract:
It has proved difficult to obtain well diffracting single crystals of macromolecular complexes rich in lipid. We report here the path that has led to crystals of the bacteriophage PRD1, a particle containing approximately 2,000 protein subunits from 18 different protein species, around 10 of which are integral membrane proteins associated with a host-derived lipid bilayer of some 12,500 lipid molecules. These crystals are capable of diffracting X-rays to Bragg spacings below 4A. It is hoped that some lessons learned from PRD1 will be applicable to other lipidic systems and that these crystals will allow, as a proof of principle, the determination of the structure of the virus in terms of a detailed atomic model.