Crystallization and preliminary crystal data of porcine pepsinogen

Single crystals of porcine pepsinogen, suitable for x-ray diffraction studies, have been grown with lithium sulfate as the precipitant. These pepsinogen crystals were dissolved, activated, and assayed for proteolytic activity. The specific enzymic activity of the dissolved crystalline protein was nearly twice that of the commerical pepsinogen from which the crystals were grown. Incubation at pH 8 before assay demonstrated that the crystals are free of pepsin. This crystal form of pepsinogen belongs to the monoclinic space group C2 with 4 molecules in the unit cell. The unit cell dimensions are a = 104.8 +/- 0.5 A, b = 43.1 +/- 0.1 A, c = 88.4 +/- 0.3 A, and beta = 91.3 degrees.