Newsletter 167
February 25, 2008


The NIH X-Ray Diffraction Interest Group

Newsletter web site: http://mcl1.ncifcrf.gov/nihxray

38th Mid-Atlantic Macromolecular Crystallography Meeting
22 - 24 May 2008, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

2008 Meeting of the American Crystallography Association
31 May - 5 June 2008, Knoxville, TN, USA

21st Congress of the International Union of Crystallography 2008
23 - 31 August 2008, Osaka, Japan

 

Item 1: January 2008 Publications by Members of the Group

  
1: Barabas O, Ronning DR, Guynet C, Hickman AB, Ton-Hoang B,
Chandler M, Dyda F.
Mechanism of IS200/IS605 Family DNA Transposases: Activation
and Transposon-Directed Target Site Selection.
Cell. 2008 Jan 25;132(2):208-20. PMID: 18243097

2: Zdanov A, Wlodawer A.
A new look at cytokine signaling.
Cell. 2008 Jan 25;132(2):179-81. PMID: 18243092

3: Hurley JH.
ESCRT complexes and the biogenesis of multivesicular bodies.
Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2008 Jan 25; PMID: 18222686

4: Hurley JH, Yang D.
Mit domainia.
Dev Cell. 2008 Jan;14(1):6-8. PMID: 18194647

5: Obsilova V, Nedbalkova E, Silhan J, Boura E, Herman P,
Vecer J, Sulc M, Teisinger J, Dyda F, Obsil T.
The 14-3-3 Protein Affects the Conformation of the Regulatory
Domain of Human Tyrosine Hydroxylase.
Biochemistry. 2008 Feb 12;47(6):1768-1777. PMID: 18181650

6: Leonard JN, Ghirlando R, Askins J, Bell JK, Margulies DH,
Davies DR, Segal DM.
The TLR3 signaling complex forms by cooperative receptor
dimerization.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008;105(1):258-63. PMID: 18172197

7: Horton JK, Watson M, Stefanick DF, Shaughnessy DT,
Taylor JA, Wilson SH.
XRCC1 and DNA polymerase beta in cellular protection against
cytotoxic DNA single-strand breaks.
Cell Res. 2008 Jan;18(1):48-63. Review. PMID: 18166976

8: Yang W.
Structure and mechanism for DNA lesion recognition.
Cell Res. 2008 Jan;18(1):184-97. Review. PMID: 18157156

9: Xinhua Ji.
The Mechanism of RNase III Action: How Dicer Dices.
Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, Volume 320,
RNAi, P.J. Paddison and P.K. Vogt (eds), Springer Publishers,
New York, pp 99-116 (2008). Abstract

Item 2: Tips and Tricks

Need an image processing software that builds three-dimensional profiles? Try XDS. For an easy start, see INTEGRATE by Kay Diederichs.

Recommended viewing: How long will my crystal last?

Dr. Susan Buchanan (NIDDK): Crystallization of Integral Membrane Proteins
    X-ray crystallography has become a very powerful tool for determining the structures of integral membrane proteins, with almost 200 unique membrane protein structures solved as of December 2007 (for a complete list, see Stephen White’s summary at http://blanco.biomol.uci.edu/Membrane_Proteins_xtal.html). However, membrane protein structures still represent less than 1% of all structures in the PDB. The major bottlenecks in the field are the expression of sufficient quantities of functional membrane proteins and the growth of well ordered crystals for X-ray analysis. This short review covers only aspects pertaining to crystallization. Our approach to membrane protein crystallization was recently written up for Current Protocols in Protein Science (Unit 17.9, available from the NIH library website). An interesting review has been written by Patrick Loll1. (Full Article)

Click for Introduction and tips and tricks in Pre-crystallization modification, Crystallization, Post-crystallization treatment, Derivatization, Diffraction, Symmetry, Structure Solution, Structure Refinement, and Structure Analysis & Presentation.


Item 3: Topic Discussion

Click for previous discussions on: Twinning, Low Resolution Crystallography, PHASER, HKL2000, Parallel Protein Expression, Structural Genomics, NCS, Missing Atoms, Trends in Crystallography, and Absorption Correction.

 

Item 4: Dr. Zbigniew Dauter's Lectures at the NIH (2005)

Part 1: "How to read international tables?"

Part 2: "Data collection strategy" and "Twinning"

           "Phasing methods - a general introduction to all methods"

Part 3: "SAD phasing, Quick halide soaking, and Radiation damage 

           with possible use of it for phasing"


This site is maintained by Dr. Xinhua Ji (jix@ncifcrf.gov) on the NCI-CCR-MCL server (http://mcl1.ncifcrf.gov).