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The aim of this work was to develop a stable immobilized enzyme biocatalyst for the isomerization of d-galactose to d-tagatose at high temperature. l-Arabinose isomerase from the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima (TMAI) was produced as a (His) 6 -tagged protein, immobilized on a copper-chelate epoxy support and subjected to several postimmobilization treatments aimed at increasing its operational and structural stability. Treatment with glutaraldehyde and ethylenediamine resulted in a more than twofold increase in the operational stability and in all enzyme subunits linked, directly or indirectly, to the support via covalent bonds. A postimmobilization treatment of the immobilized derivatives with mercaptoethanol for the removal of any remaining copper ions, determined a further increase of the operational biocatalytic activity. Immobilized derivatives subjected to both treatments were used for the bioconversion of 18 g/L d-galactose to d-tagatose at 80°C in a packed bed reactor in three repeated cycles and showed a better operational stability compared with the literature data. This study shows that a postimmobilization stabilization treatment with glutaraldehyde and ethylenediamine can stabilize the multi-subunit structure of an enzyme immobilized on a metal-chelate epoxy support with an increase of its operational stability, results that are not easily achievable with the sole immobilization on epoxy or metal chelate-epoxy supports in the case of complex multimeric enzymes with geometric incongruence with the support., (© 2020 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.)

The measurement of diffraction data from macromolecular crystal samples held in vacuo holds the promise of a very low X-ray background and zero absorption of incident and scattered beams, leading to better data and the potential for accessing very long X-ray wavelengths (>3 Å) for native sulfur phasing. Maintaining the hydration of protein crystals under vacuum is achieved by the use of liquid jets, as with serial data collection at free-electron lasers, or is side-stepped by cryocooling the samples, as implemented at new synchrotron beamlines. Graphene has been shown to protect crystals from dehydration by creating an extremely thin layer that is impermeable to any exchanges with the environment. Furthermore, owing to its hydrophobicity, most of the aqueous solution surrounding the crystal is excluded during sample preparation, thus eliminating most of the background caused by liquid. Here, it is shown that high-quality data can be recorded at room temperature from graphene-wrapped protein crystals in a rough vacuum. Furthermore, it was observed that graphene protects crystals exposed to different relative humidities and a chemically harsh environment.

The second-harmonic generation (SHG) activity of protein crystals was found to be enhanced by up to ∼1000-fold by the intercalation of SHG phores within the crystal lattice. Unlike the intercalation of fluorophores, the SHG phores produced no significant background SHG from solvated dye or from dye intercalated into amorphous aggregates. The polarization-dependent SHG is consistent with the chromophores adopting the symmetry of the crystal lattice. In addition, the degree of enhancement for different symmetries of dyes is consistent with theoretical predictions based on the molecular nonlinear optical response. Kinetics studies indicate that intercalation arises over a timeframe of several minutes in lysozyme, with detectable enhancements within seconds. These results provide a potential means to increase the overall diversity of protein crystals and crystal sizes amenable to characterization by SHG microscopy.

The crystal structure of arabinose-5-phosphate isomerase (API) from Bacteroides fragilis (bfAPI) was determined at 1.7 Å resolution and was found to be a tetramer of a single-domain sugar isomerase (SIS) with an endogenous ligand, CMP-Kdo (cytidine 5'-monophosphate-3-deoxy-D-manno-oct-2-ulosonate), bound at the active site. API catalyzes the reversible isomerization of D-ribulose 5-phosphate to D-arabinose 5-phosphate in the first step of the Kdo biosynthetic pathway. Interestingly, the bound CMP-Kdo is neither the substrate nor the product of the reaction catalyzed by API, but corresponds to the end product in the Kdo biosynthetic pathway and presumably acts as a feedback inhibitor for bfAPI. The active site of each monomer is located in a surface cleft at the tetramer interface between three monomers and consists of His79 and His186 from two different adjacent monomers and a Ser/Thr-rich region, all of which are highly conserved across APIs. Structure and sequence analyses indicate that His79 and His186 may play important catalytic roles in the isomerization reaction. CMP-Kdo mimetics could therefore serve as potent and specific inhibitors of API and provide broad protection against many different bacterial infections.

Ketol-isomerases catalyze the reversible isomerization between aldoses and ketoses. D-Xylose isomerase carries out the first reaction in the catabolism of D-xylose, but is also able to convert D-glucose to D-fructose. The first step of the reaction is an enzyme-catalyzed ring opening of the cyclic substrate. The active-site amino-acid acid/base pair involved in ring opening has long been investigated and several models have been proposed. Here, the structure of the xylose isomerase E186Q mutant with cyclic glucose bound at the active site, refined against joint X-ray and neutron diffraction data, is reported. Detailed analysis of the hydrogen-bond networks at the active site of the enzyme suggests that His54, which is doubly protonated, is poised to protonate the glucose O5 position, while Lys289, which is neutral, promotes deprotonation of the glucose O1H hydroxyl group via an activated water molecule. The structure also reveals an extended hydrogen-bonding network that connects the conserved residues Lys289 and Lys183 through three structurally conserved water molecules and residue 186, which is a glutamic acid to glutamine mutation.

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron BT0793, a putative xylose isomerase, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified and crystallized using polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether 550 as the precipitant. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 2.10 Å resolution at 100 K using synchrotron X-rays. The crystal was found to belong to space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a=96.3, b=101.7, c=108.3 Å, α=82.8, β=68.2, γ=83.0°. The asymmetric unit contained eight subunits of xylose isomerase with a crystal volume per protein weight (VM) of 2.38 Å3 Da(-1) and a solvent content of 48.3%.

Xylose isomerase (EC 5.3.1.5) is a key enzyme in xylose metabolism which is industrially important for the transformation of glucose and xylose into fructose and xylulose, respectively. The Bifidobacterium adolescentis xylA gene (NC_008618.1) encoding xylose isomerase (XI) was cloned and the enzyme was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Purified recombinant XI was crystallized using the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion method with polyethylene glycol 3350 as the precipitating agent. A complete native data set was collected to 1.7 Å resolution using a synchrotron-radiation source. The crystals belonged to the orthorhombic space group P21212, with unit-cell parameters a = 88.78, b = 123.98, c = 78.63 Å.

The structure of ribose 5-phosphate isomerase from the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus salivarius UCC188 has been determined at 1.72 Å resolution. The structure was solved by molecular replacement, which identified the functional homodimer in the asymmetric unit. Despite only showing 57% sequence identity to its closest homologue, the structure adopted the typical α and β D-ribose 5-phosphate isomerase fold. Comparison to other related structures revealed high homology in the active site, allowing a model of the substrate-bound protein to be proposed. The determination of the structure was expedited by the use of in situ crystallization-plate screening on beamline I04-1 at Diamond Light Source to identify well diffracting protein crystals prior to routine cryocrystallography.

The structure of phosphoribosyl anthranilate isomerase (TrpF) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus (PfTrpF) has been determined at 1.75 Å resolution. The PfTrpF structure has a monomeric TIM-barrel fold which differs from the dimeric structures of two other known thermophilic TrpF proteins. A comparison of the PfTrpF structure with the two known bacterial thermophilic TrpF structures and the structure of a related mesophilic protein from Escherichia coli (EcTrpF) is presented. The thermophilic TrpF structures contain a higher proportion of ion pairs and charged residues compared with the mesophilic EcTrpF. These residues contribute to the closure of the central barrel and the stabilization of the barrel and the surrounding α-helices. In the monomeric PfTrpF conserved structural water molecules are mostly absent; instead, the structural waters are replaced by direct side-chain-main-chain interactions. As a consequence of these combined mechanisms, the P. furiosus enzyme is a thermodynamically stable and entropically optimized monomeric TIM-barrel enzyme which defines a good framework for further protein engineering for industrial applications.

D-Xylose isomerase (XI) converts the aldo-sugars xylose and glucose to their keto analogs xylulose and fructose, but is strongly inhibited by the polyols xylitol and sorbitol, especially at acidic pH. In order to understand the atomic details of polyol binding to the XI active site, a 2.0 Å resolution room-temperature joint X-ray/neutron structure of XI in complex with Ni(2+) cofactors and sorbitol inhibitor at pH 5.9 and a room-temperature X-ray structure of XI containing Mg(2+) ions and xylitol at the physiological pH of 7.7 were obtained. The protonation of oxygen O5 of the inhibitor, which was found to be deprotonated and negatively charged in previous structures of XI complexed with linear glucose and xylulose, was directly observed. The Ni(2+) ions occupying the catalytic metal site (M2) were found at two locations, while Mg(2+) in M2 is very mobile and has a high B factor. Under acidic conditions sorbitol gains a water-mediated interaction that connects its O1 hydroxyl to Asp257. This contact is not found in structures at basic pH. The new interaction that is formed may improve the binding of the inhibitor, providing an explanation for the increased affinity of the polyols for XI at low pH.

L-Proline is one of Mother Nature's cryoprotectants. Plants and yeast accumulate proline under freeze-induced stress and the use of proline in the cryopreservation of biological samples is well established. Here, it is shown that L-proline is also a useful cryoprotectant for protein crystallography. Proline was used to prepare crystals of lysozyme, xylose isomerase, histidine acid phosphatase and 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase for low-temperature data collection. The crystallization solutions in these test cases included the commonly used precipitants ammonium sulfate, sodium chloride and polyethylene glycol and spanned the pH range 4.6-8.5. Thus, proline is compatible with typical protein-crystallization formulations. The proline concentration needed for cryoprotection of these crystals is in the range 2.0-3.0 M. Complete data sets were collected from the proline-protected crystals. Proline performed as well as traditional cryoprotectants based on the diffraction resolution and data-quality statistics. The structures were refined to assess the binding of proline to these proteins. As observed with traditional cryoprotectants such as glycerol and ethylene glycol, the electron-density maps clearly showed the presence of proline molecules bound to the protein. In two cases, histidine acid phosphatase and 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase, proline binds in the active site. It is concluded that L-proline is an effective cryoprotectant for protein crystallography.

Study of the enzymes from sugar metabolic pathways may provide a better understanding of the pathogenesis of the human oral pathogen Streptococcus mutans. Bioinformatics, biochemical and crystallization methods were used to characterize and understand the function of two putative ribose-5-phosphate isomerases: SMU1234 and SMU2142. The proteins were cloned and constructed with N-terminal His tags. Protein purification was performed by Ni(2+)-chelating and size-exclusion chromatography. The crystals of SUM1234 diffracted to 1.9 Å resolution and belonged to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 48.97, b = 98.27, c = 101.09 Å, α = β = γ = 90°. The optimized SMU2142 crystals diffracted to 2.7 Å resolution and belonged to space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a = 53.7, b = 54.1, c = 86.5 Å, α = 74.2, β = 73.5, γ = 83.7°. Initial phasing of both proteins was attempted by molecular replacement; the structure of SMU1234 could easily be solved, but no useful results were obtained for SMU2142. Therefore, SeMet-labelled SMU2142 will be prepared for phasing.

A number of pathogens, including the causative agents of tuberculosis and malaria, synthesize the essential isoprenoid precursor isopentenyl diphosphate via the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway rather than the classical mevalonate pathway that is found in humans. As part of a structure-based drug-discovery program against tuberculosis, DXR, the enzyme that carries out the second step in the MEP pathway, has been investigated. This enzyme is the target for the antibiotic fosmidomycin and its active acetyl derivative FR-900098. The structure of DXR from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in complex with FR-900098, manganese and the NADPH cofactor has been solved and refined. This is a new crystal form that diffracts to a higher resolution than any other DXR complex reported to date. Comparisons with other ternary complexes show that the conformation is that of the enzyme in an active state: the active-site flap is well defined and the cofactor-binding domain has a conformation that brings the NADPH into the active site in a manner suitable for catalysis. The substrate-binding site is highly conserved in a number of pathogens that use this pathway, so any new inhibitor that is designed for the M. tuberculosis enzyme is likely to exhibit broad-spectrum activity.

Acinetobacter sp. L-ribose isomerase (L-RI) catalyzes a reversible isomerization reaction between L-ribose and L-ribulose. To date, information on L-RI remains limited and its amino-acid sequence shows no similarity to those of any known enzymes. Here, recombinant His-tagged L-RI was successfully overexpressed, purified and crystallized. Crystals of His-tagged L-RI were obtained by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method at room temperature as two crystal forms which belonged to the monoclinic space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 96.60, b = 105.89, c = 71.83 Å, β = 118.16°, and the orthorhombic space group F222, with unit-cell parameters a = 96.44, b = 106.26, c = 117.83 Å. Diffraction data were collected to 3.1 and 2.2 Å resolution, respectively., (© 2011 International Union of Crystallography. All rights reserved.)

A description is given of the results of neutron diffraction studies of the structures of four different metal-ion complexes of deuterated D-xylose isomerase. These represent four stages in the progression of the biochemical catalytic action of this enzyme. Analyses of the structural changes observed between the various three-dimensional structures lead to some insight into the mechanism of action of this enzyme.

L-Rhamnose isomerases catalyze isomerization between L-rhamnose (6-deoxy-L-mannose) and L-rhamnulose (6-deoxy-L-fructose), which is the first step in rhamnose catabolism. L-Rhamnose isomerase from Bacillus halodurans ATCC BAA-125 (BHRI) exhibits interesting characteristics such as high thermostability and selective substrate specificity. BHRI fused with an HHHHHH sequence was purified and crystallized in order to elucidate the molecular basis of its unique enzymatic properties. The crystals were grown by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method and belonged to the monoclinic space group P2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 83.2, b = 164.9, c = 92.0 A, beta = 116.0 degrees . Diffraction data were collected to 2.5 A resolution. According to a Matthews coefficient calculation, there are four monomers in the asymmetric unit with a V(M) of 3.0 A(3) Da(-1) and a solvent content of 59.3%. The initial structure of BHRI has been determined by the molecular-replacement method.

The nonmevalonate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis present in Plasmodium falciparum is known to be an effective target for antimalarial drugs. The second enzyme of the nonmevalonate pathway, 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR), catalyzes the transformation of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP) to 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP). For crystallographic studies, DXR from the human malaria parasite P. falciparum (PfDXR) was overproduced in Escherichia coli, purified and crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method in the presence of NADPH. X-ray diffraction data to 1.85 A resolution were collected from a monoclinic crystal form belonging to space group C2 with unit-cell parameters a = 168.89, b = 59.65, c = 86.58 A, beta = 117.8 degrees. Structural analysis by molecular replacement is in progress.

Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase is a ubiquitous intracellular enzyme of bacterial, plant and animal origin that is involved in the pentose phosphate cycle, an essential component of cellular carbohydrate metabolism. Specifically, the enzyme catalyses the reversible conversion of ribose 5-phosphate to ribulose 5-phosphate. The structure of ribose-5-phosphate isomerase from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii has been solved in space group P2(1) to 1.78 A resolution using molecular replacement with one homotetramer in the asymmetric unit and refined to an R factor of 14.8%. The active site in each subunit was occupied by two molecules of propylene glycol in different orientations, one of which corresponds to the location of the phosphate moiety and the other to the location of the furanose ring of the inhibitor.

Rare sugars are used for many industrial and medical purposes and are produced by the interconversion between aldoses and ketoses catalyzed by sugar and sugar-phosphate isomerases. Recently, Clostridium thermocellum d-ribose-5-phosphate isomerase (CTRPI), an aldose-ketose isomerase, was cloned in order to synthesize d-allose and its substrate specificity was further characterized for industrial usage. CTRPI has a novel substrate specificity that differs from those of other isomerases, which have broad substrate specificities. CTRPI prefers aldose substrates such as l-talose, d-ribose and d-allose. CTRPI was purified and crystallized in order to determine its three-dimensional structure and thus to elucidate its enzymatic reaction mechanism and understand its substrate specificity. The crystal belonged to the trigonal space group P3(2)21, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 69.5, c = 154.4 angstrom, and diffracted to 1.9 angstrom resolution. According to Matthews coefficient calculations, the crystallographic structure consists of a dimer in the asymmetric unit, with a V(M) of 3.2 angstrom(3) Da(-1) and a solvent content of 61.7%.

Sedoheptulose-7-phosphate isomerase (GmhA) converts d-sedoheptulose 7-phosphate to d,d-heptose 7-phosphate. This is the first step in the biosynthesis pathway of NDP-heptose, which is responsible for the pleiotropic phenotype. This biosynthesis pathway is the target of inhibitors to increase the membrane permeability of Gram-negative pathogens or of adjuvants working synergistically with known antibiotics. Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis, a seriously invasive disease in animals and humans in tropical and subtropical areas. GmhA from B. pseudomallei is one of the targets of antibiotic adjuvants for melioidosis. In this study, GmhA has been cloned, expressed, purified and crystallized. Synchrotron X-ray data were also collected to 1.9 angstrom resolution. The crystal belonged to the primitive orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 61.3, b = 84.2, c = 142.3 angstrom. A full structural determination is under way in order to provide insights into the structure- function relationships of this protein.

The density-modification procedures incorporated in ACORN, available in the CCP4 package, have proved to be very successful in solving and refining high-resolution crystal structures from very poor starting sets. These can be calculated from a correctly positioned initial fragment containing between 1 and 8% of the scattering power of the total structure. Improvements of ACORN, reported here and incorporated in the program ACORN2, have lowered the size of the fragment required and examples are given of structures solved with only 0.25% of the scattering power in the fragment, which may be a single atom. Applications of ACORN2 to structures with space group P1 have shown the remarkable property that when the starting point is a pair of equal atoms, or even a single atom placed at the origin, the refinement process breaks the centric nature of the initial phases and converges to phases corresponding to one of the two possible enantiomorphs. Examples are given of the application of ACORN2 to the solution and/or refinement of a number of known trial structures and to the refinement of structures when phases are available either from MAD or from a molecular-replacement model.

In mycobacteria, the biosynthesis of the precursors to the essential isoprenoids, isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate is carried out by the methylerythritol phosphate pathway. This route of synthesis is absent in humans, who utilize the alternative mevalonate acid route, thus making the enzymes of the methylerythritol phosphate pathway of chemotherapeutic interest. One such identified target is the second enzyme of the pathway, 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase. Only limited information is currently available concerning the catalytic mechanism and structural dynamics of this enzyme, and only recently has a crystal structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis species of this enzyme been resolved including all factors required for binding. Here, the dynamics of the enzyme is studied in complex with NADPH, Mn2+, in the presence and absence of the fosmidomycin inhibitor using conventional molecular dynamics and an enhanced sampling technique, reversible digitally filtered molecular dynamics. The simulations reveal significant differences in the conformational dynamics of the vital catalytic loop between the inhibitor-free and inhibitor-bound enzyme complexes and highlight the contributions of conserved residues in this region. The substantial fluctuations observed suggest that 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase may be a promising target for computer-aided drug discovery through the relaxed complex method.

Proline utilization A proteins (PutAs) are large (1000-1300 residues) membrane-associated bifunctional flavoenzymes that catalyze the two-step oxidation of proline to glutamate by the sequential action of proline dehydrogenase and Delta(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase domains. Here, the first successful crystallization efforts for a PutA protein are described. Three crystal forms of PutA from Bradyrhizobium japonicum are reported: apparent tetragonal, hexagonal and centered monoclinic. The apparent tetragonal and hexagonal crystals were grown in the presence of PEG 3350 and sodium formate near pH 7. The apparent tetragonal form diffracted to 2.7 A resolution and exhibited pseudo-merohedral twinning such that the true space group is P2(1)2(1)2(1) with four molecules in the asymmetric unit. The hexagonal form diffracted to 2.3 A resolution and belonged to space group P6(2)22 with one molecule in the asymmetric unit. Centered monoclinic crystals were grown in ammonium sulfate, diffracted to 2.3 A resolution and had two molecules in the asymmetric unit. Removing the histidine tag was important in order to obtain the C2 crystal form.

D-Arabinose isomerase catalyzes the isomerization of D-arabinose to D-ribulose. Bacillus pallidus D-arabinose isomerase has broad substrate specificity and can catalyze the isomerization of D-arabinose, L-fucose, L-xylose, L-galactose and D-altrose. Recombinant B. pallidus D-arabinose isomerase was overexpressed, purified and crystallized. A crystal of the enzyme was obtained by the sitting-drop method at room temperature and belonged to the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = 144.9, b = 127.9, c = 109.5 A. Diffraction data were collected to 2.3 A resolution.

Protein crystallization has been revolutionized by the introduction of high-throughput technologies, which have led to a speeding up of the process while simultaneously reducing the amount of protein sample necessary. Nonetheless, the chemistry dimension of protein crystallization has remained relatively undeveloped. Most crystallization screens are based on the same set of precipitants. To address this shortcoming, the development of new protein precipitants based on poly-gamma-glutamic acid (PGA) polymers with different molecular-weight ranges is reported here: PGA-LM (low molecular weight) of approximately 400 kDa and PGA-HM (high molecular weight) of >1,000 kDa. It is also demonstrated that protein precipitants can be expanded further to polymers with much higher molecular weight than those that are currently in use. Furthermore, the modification of PGA-like polymers by covalent attachments of glucosamine substantially improved their solubility without affecting their crystallization properties. Some preliminary PGA-based screens are presented here.

The SMU.636 protein from Streptococcus mutans is a putative glucosamine 6-phosphate deaminase with 233 residues. The smu.636 gene was PCR-amplified from S. mutans genomic DNA and cloned into the expression vector pET-28a(+). The resultant His-tagged fusion protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity in two steps. Crystals of the fusion protein were obtained by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. The crystals diffracted to 2.4 A resolution and belong to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 53.83, b = 82.13, c = 134.70 A.

The crystal structure of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR) from Escherichia coli complexed with Mg(2+), NADPH and fosmidomycin was solved at 2.2 A resolution. DXR is the key enzyme in the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway and is an effective target of antimalarial drugs such as fosmidomycin. In the crystal structure, electron density for the flexible loop covering the active site was clearly observed, indicating the well ordered conformation of DXR upon substrate binding. On the other hand, no electron density was observed for the nicotinamide-ribose portion of NADPH and the position of Asp149 anchoring Mg(2+) was shifted by NADPH in the active site.

In experiments conducted at the Bio-CARS beamline 14-BM-C (APS, Argonne National Laboratory, USA), Streptomyces rubiginosus D-xylose isomerase (EC 5.3.1.5) crystals were used to test the effect of cryogen temperature on radiation damage. Crystals cooled using a helium cryostat at an 8 K set temperature consistently showed less decay in the signal-to-noise ratio, I/sigma(I), and in average intensity, I, compared with those cooled with a nitrogen cryostat set to 100 K. Multiple crystals grown using ammonium sulfate as precipitant were used at each cryostat set temperature and comparisons were made for crystals of similar size and diffraction resolution. Maximum resolution for the crystals was 1.1-1.3 A, with He at <20 K extending the lifetime of the high-resolution data by >25% compared with crystals cooled with N(2) at 100 K.

1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase catalyzes the NADPH-dependent rearrangement and reduction of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate to form 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate, as the second step of the deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate/methylerythritol 4-phosphate pathway found in many bacteria and plants. The end product, isopentenyl diphosphate, is the precursor of various isoprenoids vital to all living organisms. The pathway is not found in humans; the mevalonate pathway is instead used for the formation of isopentenyl diphosphate. This difference, combined with its essentiality, makes the reductoisomerase an excellent drug target in a number of pathogenic organisms. The structure of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Rv2870c) was solved by molecular replacement and refined to a resolution of 1.9 A. The enzyme exhibited an estimated kcat of 5.3 s-1 and Km and kcat/Km values of 7.2 microM and 7.4x10(5) M-1 s-1 for NADPH and 340 microM and 1.6x10(4) M-1 s-1 for 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate. In the structure, a sulfate is bound at the expected site of the phosphate moiety of the sugar substrate. The M. tuberculosis enzyme displays a similar fold to the previously published structures from Escherichia coli and Zymomonas mobilis. Comparisons offer suggestions for the design of specific drugs. Furthermore, the new structure represents an intermediate conformation between the open apo form and the closed holo form observed previously, giving insights into the conformational changes associated with catalysis.

L-Rhamnose isomerase from Pseudomonas stutzeri (P. stutzeri L-RhI) catalyzes not only the reversible isomerization of L-rhamnose to L-rhamnulose, but also isomerization between various rare aldoses and ketoses. Purified His-tagged P. stutzeri L-RhI was crystallized by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. The crystals belong to the monoclinic space group P2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 74.3, b = 104.0, c = 107.0 A, beta = 106.8 degrees . Diffraction data have been collected to 2.0 A resolution. The molecular weight of the purified P. stutzeri L-RhI with a His tag at the C-terminus was confirmed to be 47.7 kDa by MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometric analysis and the asymmetric unit is expected to contain four molecules.

The structure of ribose 5-phosphate isomerase from Plasmodium falciparum, PFE0730c, has been determined by molecular replacement at 2.09 angstroms resolution. The enzyme, which catalyzes the isomerization reaction that interconverts ribose 5-phosphate and ribulose 5-phosphate, is a member of the pentose phosphate pathway. The P. falciparum enzyme belongs to the ribose 5-phosphate isomerase A family, Pfam family PF06562 (DUF1124), and is structurally similar to other members of the family.

Phasing of the crystal structures of four standard proteins (lysozyme, trypsin, glucose isomerase and thaumatin) and a novel 69 kDa protein from Thermus thermophilus, TT0570, was performed using the single-wavelength anomalous diffraction of S atoms intrinsically present within the native protein molecules. To utilize the sulfur anomalous diffraction, the data sets were collected using the loopless data-collection method with chromium Kalpha X-rays of wavelength 2.29 A. Three phasing methods, MLPHARE, SHARP and OASIS-2004, were tested in combination with the DM or SOLOMON density-modification method. The results showed that the solvent contents are still an important factor for phasing with the S-SAD method, even when longer wavelength Cr Kalpha radiation is used. Of the three procedures, the improved direct phasing of OASIS-2004 with its implemented fragment feedback to the direct-method probability calculation gave the best results in determining the initial phases. For all five proteins, almost the entire models could be built automatically.

Glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (EC 2.6.1.16) catalyses the first and practically irreversible step in the hexosamine metabolism pathway, the end product of which, uridine 5'-diphospho-N-acetyl D-glucosamine, is an essential substrate for assembly of the cell wall. The isomerase domain, consisting of residues 346-712 (42 kDa), of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase from Candida albicans has been crystallized. X-ray analysis revealed that the crystals belonged to space group I4, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 149, c = 103 A. Diffraction data were collected to 3.8 A. Preliminary results from molecular replacement using the homologous bacterial monomer reveal that the asymmetric unit contains two monomers that resemble a bacterial dimer. The crystal lattice consists of pairs of such symmetry-related dimers forming elongated tetramers.

In the vapor-diffusion protein-crystallization method, a small drop containing protein sample mixed with a crystallization solution is equilibrated against a reservoir solution in a sealed chamber. Whereas the chemical composition of the crystallization solution is critical for success, the primary role of the reservoir solution is to slowly concentrate the crystallization drop in a controlled fashion. Accordingly, it might be possible to use any reservoir solution of appropriate dehydrating strength. The important practical consequence is that many different experiments can share the same reservoir solution. This approach, called the ;shared reservoir solution' method, significantly simplifies manual and robotic experiment setup, reduces cost and allows a completely new design of optically superior and higher density crystallization plates. Although this research was motivated by these practical advantages, recent reports and the authors' results indicate that this method may actually increase crystallization success. The authors suggest that this may indicate that a protein has a preferred water activity for crystallization. Here, present practical and theoretical considerations as well as experimental tests of the shared reservoir solution method are presented.

Flash-cooling of protein crystals is the best known method to effectively mitigate radiation damage in macromolecular crystallography. To prevent physical damage to crystals upon cooling, suitable cryoprotectants must usually be found, a process that is time-consuming and in some cases unsuccessful. A method is described to cool protein crystals in high-pressure helium gas without the need for penetrative cryoprotectants. The method involves mounting protein crystals from the native mother liquor in a cryoloop with a droplet of oil, pressurizing the crystal to 200 MPa in He gas, cooling the crystal under pressure and then releasing the pressure. The crystal is then removed from the apparatus under liquid nitrogen and handled thereafter like a normal cryocooled crystal. Results are presented from three representative proteins. Dramatic improvement in diffraction quality in terms of resolution and mosaicity was observed in all cases. A mechanism for the pressure cooling is proposed involving high-density amorphous (HDA) ice which is produced at high pressure and is metastable at room pressure and 110 K.

Metastable states such as liquid-liquid phase separation, aggregation and gelation can affect protein crystallization but their positive or negative effects are only partially understood. In this work, mixtures of PEG (MW 10 kDa) and a large model protein, glucose isomerase (MW 173 kDa), have been studied to characterize the effect of a metastable liquid-liquid phase separation on protein crystallization. Fluorescence labeling allowed confocal fluorescence microscopy observations and quantification of the partitioning of the protein and PEG between the liquid phases and showed two steps in the crystallization process. Two crystallization mechanisms within the liquid domain were revealed, yielding two different polymorphs. With one polymorph, few crystals nucleated and grew droplet-by-droplet in the dispersed concentrated liquid phase, while for the other homogeneous crystal nucleation and growth occurred independently and simultaneously in numerous droplets of the concentrated phase. The results demonstrate the substantial possible complexity of crystallization behavior, as well as its sensitivity to the location of the conditions on the phase diagram and to the physicochemical properties of the system.

Methylthioribose-1-phosphate isomerase (MtnA) from Bacillus subtilis, the first enzyme in the downstream section of the methionine-salvage pathway, was crystallized using the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion method. Crystals grew using ammonium sulfate as the precipitant at 293 K. They diffracted to 2.5 A at 100 K using synchrotron radiation and were found to belong to the tetragonal space group P4(1), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 69.2, c = 154.7 A. The asymmetric unit contains two molecules of MtnA, with a VM value of 2.4 A3 Da(-1) and a solvent content of 48%.

The deactivation of protein biocatalysts even at relatively low temperatures is one of the principal drawbacks to their use. To aid in the development of novel biocatalysts, we have derived an equation for both time- and temperature-dependent activity of the biocatalyst based on known concepts such as transition state theory and the Lumry-Eyring model. We then derived an analytical solution for the total turnover number (ttn), under isothermal operation, as a function of the catalytic constant kcat, the unfolding equilibrium constant K, and the intrinsic first-order deactivation rate constant(s) k(d,i). Employing an immobilized glucose isomerase biocatalyst in a CSTR and utilizing a linear temperature ramp beyond the Tm of the enzyme, we demonstrate an accelerated method for extracting the thermodynamic and kinetic constants describing the biocatalyst system. In addition, we demonstrate that the predicted biocatalyst behavior at different temperatures and reaction times is consistent with the experimental observations.

Intrinsic ultraviolet fluorescence has been investigated as a rapid non-invasive method for identifying and distinguishing protein crystals. An epi-fluorescence microscope, which provides for excitation and viewing of fluorescence from above the sample, and a straight-through geometry, which provides excitation from above and views fluorescence from underneath the sample, were tested with protein and non-protein crystal samples. In both systems the protein crystals were observed to fluoresce brightly, providing a high contrast against background solution fluorescence, thus enabling protein crystals to be identified and distinguished from non-protein crystals.

Isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) is a universal building block for the ubiquitous isoprenoids that are essential to all organisms. The enzymes of the non-mevalonate pathway for IPP synthesis, which is unique to many pathogenic bacteria, have recently been explored as targets for antibiotic development. Several crystal structures of 2C-methyl-D-erythritol-2,4-cyclophosphate (MECDP) synthase, the fifth of seven enzymes involved in the non-mevalonate pathway for synthesis of IPP, have been reported; however, the composition of metal ions in the active site and the presence of a hydrophobic cavity along the non-crystallographic threefold symmetry axis has varied between the reported structures. Here, the structure of MEDCP from Shewanella oneidensis MR1 (SO3437) was determined to 1.6 A resolution in the absence of substrate. The presence of a zinc ion in the active-site cleft, tetrahedrally coordinated by two histidine side chains, an aspartic acid side chain and an ambiguous fourth ligand, was confirmed by zinc anomalous diffraction. Based on analysis of anomalous diffraction data and typical metal-to-ligand bond lengths, it was concluded that an octahedral sodium ion was 3.94 A from the zinc ion. A hydrophobic cavity was observed along the threefold non-crystallographic symmetry axis, filled by a well defined non-protein electron density that could be modeled as farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP), a downstream product of IPP, suggesting a possible feedback mechanism for enzyme regulation. The high-resolution data clarified the FPP-binding mode compared with previously reported structures. Multiple sequence alignment indicated that the residues critical to the formation of the hydrophobic cavity and for coordinating the pyrophosphate group of FPP are present in the majority of MEDCP synthase enzymes, supporting the idea of a specialized biological function related to FPP binding in a subfamily of MEDCP synthase homologs.

The effects of acetone and ethanol on glucose to fructose conversion catalyzed by soluble and cross-linked crystalline (CLXIC) xylose isomerase were studied. Relative to pure buffer solvent, the fructose production rate was more than doubled in 50% acetone. The same kind of increase in the isomerization rate was not seen with ethanol. Increase both in acetone and in ethanol concentration in the reaction solvent enhanced the production of fructose. At 50 degrees C in pure buffer solvent the reaction mixture contained 49% fructose in equilibrium and in 90% acetone the fructose equilibrium content was 64%. Furthermore, CLXIC was relatively stable in the presence of high concentration of acetone: 70-80% of activity was left after incubation for 24 h at 50 degrees C in buffer solutions (pH 7.2) containing 10-90% acetone. In buffer containing 50% ethanol only 2% of the initial activity of CLXIC was retained after 24 h at 50 degrees C. Soluble xylose isomerase was considerably less stable than CLXIC in both acetone- and ethanol-containing solutions. These results show that the addition of acetone enhances the production of fructose from glucose by enhancing the reaction rate and shifting the equilibrium toward fructose. However, xylose isomerase must be in the form of cross-linked crystals for maximal activity and stability.

In this paper, the detection of crystalline elements in protein crystallization droplets containing precipitate is illustrated using the rotating-polarizer microscope technique. The sensitivity of this automated birefringence technique enables the detection of microcrystals in a precipitate that appears to be amorphous using traditional methods of inspection. The technique is illustrated with lysozyme and glucose isomerase. Glucose isomerase microcrystals were used successfully for seeding experiments and the conditions of both of the systems were refined to produce crystals suitable for X-ray analysis. The results are relevant to the field of high-throughput crystallography as an automated crystal-detection method as well as being a useful tool for detailed precipitate analysis.

The priA gene encoding the enzyme phosphoribosyl isomerase from Streptomyces coelicolor, a novel bifunctional enzyme involved in both histidine and tryptophan biosynthesis, was heterologously expressed and purified in Escherichia coli as an N-terminal His-tag fusion. The purified recombinant enzyme was crystallized using the hanging-drop method in 1.50 M ammonium sulfate and 100 mM sodium citrate pH 4.8. Crystals were obtained of up to 0.05 x 0.05 x 0.3 mm in size. A full data set to 2 A resolution was collected at the ESRF beamline ID14-1 and space group P3(1,2)21 was assigned, with unit-cell parameters a = 65.1, c = 104.7 A.

The metalloenzyme D-xylose isomerase forms well ordered crystals that diffract X-rays to ultrahigh resolution (<1 A). However, structural analysis using X-ray diffraction data has as yet been unable to differentiate between several postulated mechanisms that describe the catalytic activity of this enzyme. Neutrons, with their greater scattering sensitivity to H atoms, could help to resolve this by determining the protonation states within the active site of the enzyme. As the first step in the process of investigating the mechanism of action of D-xylose isomerase from Streptomyces rubiginosus using neutron diffraction, data to better than 2.0 A were measured from the unliganded protein at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center Protein Crystallography Station. Measurement of these neutron diffraction data represents several milestones: this is one of the largest biological molecules (a tetramer, MW approximately 160 000 Da, with unit-cell lengths around 100 A) ever studied at high resolution using neutron diffraction. It is also one of the first proteins to be studied using time-of-flight techniques. The success of the initial diffraction experiments with D-xylose isomerase demonstrate the power of spallation neutrons for protein crystallography and should provide further impetus for neutron diffraction studies of biologically active and significant proteins. Further data will be measured from the enzyme with bound substrates and inhibitors in order to provide the specific information needed to clarify the catalytic mechanism of this enzyme.

D-Tagatose was continuously produced using thermostable L-arabinose isomerase immobilized in alginate with D-galactose solution in a packed-bed bioreactor. Bead size, L/D (length/diameter) of reactor, dilution rate, total loaded enzyme amount, and substrate concentration were found to be optimal at 0.8 mm, 520/7 mm, 0.375 h(-1), 5.65 units, and 300 g/L, respectively. Under these conditions, the bioreactor produced about 145 g/L tagatose with an average productivity of 54 g tagatose/L x h and an average conversion yield of 48% (w/w). Operational stability of the immobilized enzyme was demonstrated, with a tagatose production half-life of 24 days.

Reducing protein consumption during crystallization screening is of utmost importance to crystallographers because of the time, effort and money that goes into producing pure protein. One approach is to reduce sample volumes with robotics, but a patent and the high cost of equipment limits access. Here, it is shown that the same result can be obtained by reducing the sample concentration in a modified vapour-diffusion protocol, the dilution method. In this protocol, the protein and mother liquor in the crystallization drop are both diluted, while the mother liquor in the well remains undiluted. Vapour diffusion will shrink the initial volume of the crystallization drop, e.g. 1 micro l or more, to a drop size equivalent to one dispensed by a robot. This new crystallization method circumvents some of the current problems associated with robotic crystallization screening trials. Because of the large initial volume of the crystallization drop, the evaporation problem is eliminated and dispensing accuracy is improved. In addition, the likelihood that the crystallization experiment starts in the undersaturated region is increased.

A technique for automatically evaluating microbatch (400 nl) protein-crystallization trials is described. This method addresses analysis problems introduced at the sub-microlitre scale, including non-uniform lighting and irregular droplet boundaries. The droplet is segmented from the well using a loopy probabilistic graphical model with a two-layered grid topology. A vector of 23 features is extracted from the droplet image using the Radon transform for straight-edge features and a bank of correlation filters for microcrystalline features. Image classification is achieved by linear discriminant analysis of its feature vector. The results of the automatic method are compared with those of a human expert on 32 1536-well plates. Using the human-labeled images as ground truth, this method classifies images with 85% accuracy and a ROC score of 0.84. This result compares well with the experimental repeatability rate, assessed at 87%. Images falsely classified as crystal-positive variously contain speckled precipitate resembling microcrystals, skin effects or genuine crystals falsely labeled by the human expert. Many images falsely classified as crystal-negative variously contain very fine crystal features or dendrites lacking straight edges. Characterization of these misclassifications suggests directions for improving the method.

The nucleation event in protein crystallization is a part of the process that is poorly controlled. It is generally accepted that the protein should be in the metastable phase for crystal growth, but for nucleation higher levels of saturation are needed. Formation of nuclei in bulk solvent requires interaction of protein molecules until a critical size of aggregate is created. In many crystallization experiments sufficiently high levels of saturation are not reached to allow this critical nucleation event to occur. If an environment can be created that favours a higher local concentration of macromolecules, the energy barrier for nucleation may be lowered. When seeds are introduced at lower levels of saturation in a crystallization experiment, nucleation may be facilitated and crystal growth initiated. In this study, the use of natural materials as stable seeds for nucleation has been investigated. The method makes it possible to introduce seeds into crystallization trials at any stage of the experiment using both microbatch and vapour-diffusion methods.

Recent years have witnessed significant advancements in X-ray data-acquisition techniques and phasing algorithms, which have made possible the successful use of a very small anomalous diffraction signal for the solution of crystal structures of macromolecules. Two crystal structures, a 44 kDa glucose isomerase containing nine sulfurs and a 33 kDa xylanase containing five sulfurs, have been solved from single-wavelength anomalous data using widely available methods and programs. These two enzymes contain less sulfur than most proteins in the bacterial or eukaryotic proteomes, providing a Bijvoet ratio of about 0.6%. For glucose isomerase the automatically interpretable electron-density maps could be obtained at high as well as low resolution. The S-SAD approach relies on the anomalous signal of sulfur naturally occurring in proteins and alleviates all need for sample derivatization. It may therefore be applicable to all protein crystals able to provide accurate diffraction data.

Glucose isomerase from Streptomyces rubiginosus was crystallized in two forms: I222, with one molecule of 44 kDa in the asymmetric unit, and P2(1)2(1)2, with two unique molecules. The I222 structure is known, but the P2(1)2(1)2 form has not been solved before. X-ray diffraction data for the P2(1)2(1)2 form were collected at a wavelength of 1.54 A and data for the I222 form were collected at three different wavelengths: 1.34, 1.07 and 0.98 A. The amount of anomalous signal from one Mn and eight S atoms in these data sets varies from 1.24% to as low as 0.56%. The dual-space direct-methods program SHELXD, run against the Bijvoet differences, gave a clear solution of all anomalous scatterers for all data sets. The Mn positions only were used for SAD phasing of all four data sets. The electron-density map after density modification, resulting from the phasing of a single-wavelength data set and based purely on the anomalous deltaf" contribution, was clearly interpretable; an almost complete model of the protein was built by wARP without human intervention in all four cases. As far as is known, this is the first time that an anomalous signal as low as 0.6% has successfully been used to determine the structure of a macromolecule.