Photochemically induced crystallization of protein

Abstract

A photochemical reaction of protein triggers crystal growth. Residual Trp or Tyr radical intermediates are produced by photochemical reactions. The intermediates collide with other proteins to form protein dimers, and some of the dimers grow larger than the critical radius to form crystal nuclei; however, not all dimers grow into nuclei. It appears that, in order to grow into a nucleus, a dimer needs to have the same configuration as two adjacent molecules in the crystal. Molecules that have such configurations are called template molecules. In the case of lysozyme, a dimer combined at Tyr53-Tyr53 residuals was considered a template molecule. It was also found that not all the dimers produced always grew to template molecules; thus, we examined a strategy to produce template molecules.