Protein crystallization and initial neutron diffraction studies of the photosystem II subunit PsbO

The PsbO protein of photosystem II stabilizes the active-site manganese cluster and is thought to act as a proton antenna. To enable neutron diffraction studies, crystals of the β-barrel core of PsbO were grown in capillaries. The crystals were optimized by screening additives in a counter-diffusion setup in which the protein and reservoir solutions were separated by a 1% agarose plug. Crystals were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. Initial neutron diffraction data were collected from a 0.25 mm³ crystal at room temperature using the MaNDi single-crystal diffractometer at the Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.