A method for screening the temperature dependence of three-dimensional crystal formation

✍ Scribed by Landsberg, Michael J. ;Bond, James ;Gee, Christine L. ;Martin, Jennifer L. ;Hankamer, Ben

• Book ID: 104478204
• Publisher: International Union of Crystallography
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 463 KB
• Volume: 62
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0907-4449
• DOI: 10.1107/s0907444906006093

✦ Synopsis

Temperature is an important parameter controlling protein crystal growth. A new temperature-screening system (Thermo-screen) is described consisting of a gradient thermocycler fitted with a special crystallization-plate adapter onto which a 192-well sitting-drop crystallization plate can be mounted (temperature range 277-372 K; maximum temperature gradient 20 K; interval precision 0.3 K). The system allows 16 different conditions to be monitored simultaneously over a range of 12 temperatures and is well suited to conduct wide (approximately 20 K) and fine (approximately 3 K) temperature-optimization screens. It can potentially aid in the determination of temperature phase diagrams and run more complex temperature-cycling experiments for seeding and crystal growth.