Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 15, 2026
Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases
Published on: November 21, 2010
Self-Assembly of Protein Crystals with Different Crystal Structures Using Tobacco Mosaic Virus Coat Protein as a
Jianting Zhang1, Xiao Wang2, Kun Zhou1
1CAS Key Laboratory of Nano-Bio Interface, Division of Nanobiomedicine and i-Lab, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Suzhou 215123, China.
Abstract:
In this work, a typical cylinder-shaped tobacco mosaic virus coat protein (TMVCP) is employed as an anisotropic building block to assemble into triclinic and hexagonal close-packed (HCP) protein crystals by introducing cysteine residues at the 1 and 3 sites and four histidine residues at the C-terminal, respectively. The engineered functional groups of cysteine and histidine in the TMVCP and the self-assembly conditions determine the thermodynamics and kinetics in the self-assembly process for forming different crystal structures. The results show that the TMVCPs are thermodynamically driven to form triclinic crystals due to the formation of disulfide bonds between neighboring TMVCPs. On the other hand, the self-assembly of HCP crystals is kinetically directed by the strong metal-histidine chelation. This work not only greatly expands TMVCP for fabricating promising nanomaterials but also represents an approach to adjusting the protein crystal structures by tuning the thermodynamics and kinetics during crystallization.
Related Concept Videos
02:41Protein Complex Assembly
Many viruses self-assemble into a fully functional unit using the infected host cell to...
02:41Protein Complex Assembly
02:42Ionic Crystal Structures
Most monatomic ions behave as charged spheres, and their attraction for ions of opposite charge is the same in every direction. Consequently, stable structures for ionic compounds result (1) when ions of one charge are surrounded by as many ions as possible of the opposite...
02:15Protein and Protein Structure
A protein's shape is critical to its function. For example, an enzyme...
02:58Crystal Field Theory - Octahedral Complexes
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
01:25Crystal Growth: Principles of Crystallization
Initiating crystallization involves manipulating the concentration of the solute and the temperature of the solution. Since crystal growth occurs when the ratio of concentration and solubility of the solute in the solvent...