Hi Peter This idea was discussed at the recent RAMC meeting, and there is at least one example where it has worked.
Generally, cross-seeding can work as long as you have homology. See e.g. Obmolova et al. Acta Crystallogr. 2010, D66, 927–933. The same group has reported seeding a complex with crystals of one of the monomers. One thing to bear in mind is that there is no point in adding a seed stock (with e.g. crystals of one of the monomers) if the seed stock destabilizes your complex. This is all discussed in great detail and suggestions are made for finding alternatives in a paper that I mentioned here earlier (which we published this year) ref below. Good luck Patrick _____________________ “Random Microseeding: A Theoretical and Practical Exploration of Seed Stability and Seeding Techniques for Successful Protein Crystallization”. Shaw Stewart et al, Crystal Growth and Design, 2011, 11 (8), p3432. On-line at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cg2001442 On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 6:04 PM, Peter Hsu <hsuu...@u.washington.edu> wrote: > Hi all, > > I've been trying to crystallize a 3 protein complex recently with little > success. However, crystals of each subunit have previously been > crystallized. I was wondering if any one knows of any literature/experiences > where people have used seeds from an individual subunit to seed for a > complex and succeeded? Or is this just a crazy/bad idea? > > Thanks in advance for any input. > > Peter > -- patr...@douglas.co.uk Douglas Instruments Ltd. Douglas House, East Garston, Hungerford, Berkshire, RG17 7HD, UK Directors: Peter Baldock, Patrick Shaw Stewart http://www.douglas.co.uk Tel: 44 (0) 148-864-9090 US toll-free 1-877-225-2034 Regd. England 2177994, VAT Reg. GB 480 7371 36
