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Structures of proteins and cofactors: X-ray crystallography

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Abstract

Protein crystallography is the predominately used technique for the determination of the three-dimensional structures of proteins and other macromolecules. In this article, the methodology utilized for the measurement and analysis of the diffraction data from crystals is briefly reviewed. As examples of both the usefulness and difficulties of this technique, the determination of the structures of several photosynthetic pigment–protein complexes is described, namely, the reaction center from purple bacteria, photosystem I and photosystem II from cyanobacteria, the light-harvesting complex II from purple bacteria, and the FMO protein from green bacteria.

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Acknowledgment

The work from our laboratory described in this review is supported from a grant from the National Science Foundation, MCB 0640002.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA

    J. P. Allen, C. Seng & C. Larson

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  1. J. P. Allen
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  2. C. Seng
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  3. C. Larson
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Correspondence to J. P. Allen.

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Allen, J.P., Seng, C. & Larson, C. Structures of proteins and cofactors: X-ray crystallography. Photosynth Res 102, 231–240 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-009-9416-4

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