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Seven gadolinium complexes are shown to be excellent compounds for the preparation of heavy-atom derivatives for macromolecular crystallography projects. De novo phasing has been carried out using single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) on a series of gadolinium-derivative crystals of two proteins: hen egg-white lysozyme and urate oxidase from Aspergillus flavus. Lysozyme derivative crystals were obtained by co-crystallizing the protein with the corresponding gadolinium complex at a concentration of 100 mM. Diffraction data were collected to a resolution of 1.7 Å using Cu Kα radiation from a rotating-anode generator, making use of the high anomalous signal of gadolinium at this wavelength. Urate oxidase derivative crystals were obtained by soaking native crystals in 100 mM gadolinium complex solutions. Diffraction data were collected to a resolution close to 3 Å using X-rays at the Gd L[sub III] absorption edge, taking advantage of the sharp white line on that edge. For all urate oxidase derivative crystals and three of the lysozyme crystals, SAD phasing led to electron-density maps of very high quality, allowing unambiguous chain tracing. From this study, the binding effectiveness of the gadolinium complexes seems to be related to the nature of the precipitant used for crystallization. These gadolinium complexes represent a new class of highphasing-power heavy-atom derivatives that may be used for high-throughput structure-determination projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparative-scale oxidation of Gd(III) complexes of ligands containing 7,12-dihydroxy and 12-hydroxy substituted cholanoic moieties to the corresponding 12-oxo derivatives was accomplished by means of 12α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase. The enzymatic transformation appeared preferable to the chemical one because it was highly regioselective and environmentally benign. Other dehydrogenases, namely 3α- and 7α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases, also proved to be capable of catalysing the regioselective oxidation of the hydroxy groups of a Gd(III) complex containing a subunit of 3,7,12-trihydroxycholanoic acid. The above complexes are of interest as contrast agents for in vivo magnetic resonance imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]