Protein-detergent interactions in single crystals of membrane proteins studied by neutron crystallography

The detergent micelles surrounding membrane protein molecules in single crystals can be investigated using neutron crystallography combined with H2O/D2O contrast variation. If the protein structure is known then the contrast variation method allows phases to be determined at a contrast where the detergent dominates the scattering. The application of various constraints allows the resulting scattering length density map to be realistically modeled. The method has been applied to two different forms of the membrane protein porin. In one case both hydrogenated and partially deuterated protein were used, allowing the head group and tail to be distinguished.