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Related Concept Videos

Solution Equilibrium and Saturation01:59

Solution Equilibrium and Saturation

Imagine adding a small amount of sugar to a glass of water, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved, and then adding a bit more. You can repeat this process until the sugar concentration of the solution reaches its natural limit, a limit determined primarily by the relative strengths of the solute-solute, solute-solvent, and solvent-solvent attractive forces. You can be certain that you have reached this limit because, no matter how long you stir the solution, undissolved sugar remains. The...
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The formation of a colloidal system is exemplified by an aqueous solution containing Cl− ions is introduced to another containing Ag+ ions, resulting in the precipitation of solid AgCl as extremely tiny crystals. Instead of settling out as a filterable precipitate, these crystals remain suspended in the liquid, showcasing a colloidal system.A colloidal system involves colloidal particles within the approximate range of 1 to 1000 nm in at least one dimension, dispersed in a medium called the...
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Optimization of Crystal Growth for Neutron Macromolecular Crystallography
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Published on: March 13, 2021

Metastable liquid clusters in super- and undersaturated protein solutions.

Olga Gliko1, Weichun Pan, Panagiotis Katsonis

  • 1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B
|March 29, 2007
PubMed
Summary

Researchers discovered transient, submicron protein clusters forming dense liquid phases. These clusters are unstable, decaying within seconds, and their formation is influenced by protein concentration.

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Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases
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Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases
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Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases

Published on: November 21, 2010

Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Materials Science
  • Protein Crystallization

Background:

  • Metastable dense liquid phases are known in protein and small-molecule solutions.
  • These phases are typically stable against the solution but metastable against a solid phase.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the formation and properties of submicron dense liquid clusters using lumazine synthase.
  • To characterize the lifetime, size, and concentration dependence of these transient clusters.

Main Methods:

  • Dynamic and static light scattering
  • Atomic force microscopy
  • Monte Carlo simulations

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated submicron clusters of dense liquid formed by lumazine synthase.
  • Observed that these clusters are metastable against both crystals and the low-concentration solution, with a lifetime of approximately 10 seconds.
  • Found that increasing protein concentration increased cluster detection frequency but did not alter cluster size distribution, suggesting a preferred size.

Conclusions:

  • Submicron dense liquid clusters are transient, metastable entities with limited lifetimes.
  • Cluster formation and detection depend on specific concentration thresholds and timeframes.
  • A Monte Carlo model supports that cluster size is governed by growth and decay kinetics rather than thermodynamics.