PMID: 2503619Jun 5, 1989Paper

Electron microscopy of subnanometer surface features on metal-decorated protein crystals

Journal of Molecular Biology
Luis BachmannAdelbert Bacher

Abstract

Crystals of heavy riboflavin synthase from Bacillus subtilis were freeze-etched and vacuum-coated at normal incidence with 0.1 to 0.4 nm of gold and silver, respectively. This decoration technique was applied to probe the protein surface for preferential nucleation sites. Image processing of the electron micrographs revealed two particular decoration sites for silver and a different one for gold. According to X-ray crystallography, the riboflavin synthase molecules are spherical and smooth except for a surface corrugation of less than 1 nm, which can not be depicted by heavy-metal shadowing. Thus the decoration sites represent sites of specific physical-chemical interactions between the condensing metal and the protein. The decoration pattern correctly reflects the icosahedral symmetry of the almost spherical protein molecules. Owing to the molecule's symmetry, the position of these topochemical sites with respect to the symmetry axes can be localized within 5A. The packing of the molecules in the crystal can be directly observed on shadowed replicas. Only decoration, however, makes it possible to observe the exact orientation of the molecules within the crystal planes and to derive the true lattice constant along the 6-fold sc...Continue Reading

References

Jan 1, 1990·Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences·H Schott
Jan 1, 1985·Ultramicroscopy·L BachmannW Baumeister
Jan 5, 1986·Journal of Molecular Biology·A BacherY Ben-Shaul
Apr 1, 1981·Journal of Ultrastructure Research·W BaumeisterH P Zingsheim
Aug 1, 1982·Journal of Microscopy·W O Saxton, W Baumeister

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Citations

Sep 20, 1991·Journal of Molecular Biology·S WeinkaufL Bachmann
Jul 30, 2002·Journal of Molecular Biology·Nathalie BraunLuis Bachmann
Dec 1, 1990·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Z H WangR Guckenberger
Dec 27, 1996·The Journal of Biological Chemistry·S MörtlA Bacher
Apr 1, 1993·Journal of Bacteriology·S Khan
Dec 26, 2001·Chemical Reviews·Peter G. Vekilov, J. Iwan D. Alexander

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