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Apologies for continuing to top-post here...

If the cleavage would only remove 28 amino acids from a 500 amino acid
chain, it could easily be missed by SDS-PAGE, although mass spec would
catch it.  However, I don't think you can get enough sample from a
dissolved crystal to run mass spec.

To the original poster: you need to describe the electron density break to
us in more detail, or better yet, direct us to some screenshots.  What is
your resolution?  How good is the electron density in the vicinity of the
break?  Can you see the side chains of residues 28 and 29?  A true peptide
bond cleavage will leave free amino and carboxy termini which will not fit
in the same space as a peptide bond - even at modest resolution, you should
be able to see that C-alpha #28 and C-alpha #29 are not the canonical 3.8 A
apart; at high resolution, you would hopefully see the extra oxygen of the
COOH terminus.

- Matt

--
Matthew Franklin                     phone:(917)606-4116
Senior Scientist, ImClone Systems      fax:(212)645-2054
180 Varick Street, 6th floor
New York, NY 10014

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote on 12/01/2005 11:59:14 AM:

> ***  For details on how to be removed from this list visit the  ***
> ***          CCP4 home page http://www.ccp4.ac.uk         ***
>
>
> Short answer - CAN'T BE.
>
> If you dissolve crystals and run SDS PAGE and/or mass-spec and do not see
the
> cleavage it means that there is an error in your electron density. Some
> disorder is really hard to model even having the atomic resolution data,
and
> some main chain bonds might have much lower density than the others
creating
> an appearance of cleavage.
>
> Petr
>
> On Thursday 01 December 2005 02:01 am, Jinkwang wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > Routine MR solution of a mutant structure was an easy task until I
found a
> > clear cleavage within the polypeptide chain. This cleavage is
reproducible
> > only in crystal structure, and biochemical studies such as SDS-PAGE,
> > N-terminal sequencing or Mass spectra never indicate any cleavage in
the
> > chain.
> >
> >
> >
> > The protein has about 700 amino acids, divided into alpha (200 a.a) and
> > beta (500) chains. The cleavage is found at 28-29 of the beta chain in
the
> > crystal. Wondering whether this could occur only in crystal states, the
> > crystals were dissolved, but the biochemical studies did not show any
> > cleavage, but crystal structure once again shows.
> >
> >
> >
> > Any comments are highly appreciated.
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jin Kwang


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