So both  space groups most likely describe the same crystal packing. In this 
case I would choose the highest symmetry which still gives good refinement 
results.

Best, Herman



Von: dhaval patel [mailto:[email protected]]
Gesendet: Freitag, 22. Mai 2015 09:09
An: Schreuder, Herman R&D/DE
Cc: ccp4bb
Betreff: Re: [ccp4bb] AW: [ccp4bb] Point group

Dear Herman

Thanks for reply. My molecule is generally found to be tetramer. In P212121 
space group cell content analysis shows 4molecules in asymmetric unit and in 
P4212 it shows two molecules in asymmetric unit.

Dhaval Patel
PhD Student,
Bioinformatics &
Structural Biology
Indian Institute of
Advanced Research
+91-9925450504

On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 12:31 PM, 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Dear Dhaval,

In principle, it does not matter how you describe the packing of the molecules 
in your crystal. E.g. you can refine a P212121 structure in space group P212121 
with one molecule in the asymmetric unit, or in P1 with 4 molecules in the 
asymmetric unit. In the latter case, these 4 molecules are related by 
non-crystallografic symmetry operators, which are identical to the 
crystallographic symmetry operators in P212121 (provided of course, that the 
same origin was choosen in both cases.).

So if your molecule is a tetramer with an internal 4-fold axis, the crystal 
packing could be described in P4212 with one molecule in the asymmetric unit, 
or in P212121 with 2 molecules in the asymmetric unit. In the latter 
description, the 4-fold axis is non-crystallographic. (I did not check though, 
how this works out with 2-fold versus 21 axes).

In general, if there is no reason to assume lower symmetry, e.g. too high 
Rfactors during refinement, one generally chooses the highest symmetry, since 
there is no reason to assume that the molecules are different. However, if 
there are clear differences during refinement in the different space groups, 
one chooses the space group which yields the lowest Rfactors. Beware that in 
lower symmetry, Rfactors might be somewhat lower, just because the refinement 
program has more parameters to fiddle with. This is, in my eyes, not 
significant.

Best,
Herman


Von: CCP4 bulletin board 
[mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] Im Auftrag von 
dhaval patel
Gesendet: Freitag, 22. Mai 2015 06:21
An: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Betreff: Re: [ccp4bb] Point group

Even I have the same problem my crystals get processed in to P212121 as well as 
P4212 and I am currently analysing the data but not able to conclude the space 
group. Any idea? Both structure while refining is giving around same R/Rfree. 
Any help will be appreciable.

Dhaval Patel
PhD Student,
Bioinformatics &
Structural Biology
Indian Institute of
Advanced Research
+91-9925450504

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 10:57 PM, frazao 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
On 05/21/2015 05:23 PM, Keller, Jacob wrote:
I can process my 3.8 A dataset in either P4 or P422 point groups.
Do the scaling statistics look similar for both? If so, go with P422.
Trying to enforce an incorrect symmetry operator would blow up your stats.
...But in the case of twinning, lower space groups can masquerade as higher 
ones. I say try out P4 with twin refinement, see how your stats go.

JPK
Or eventually even to further lower symmetry... I had once an example of true 
P21212 crystals that processed nicely as P4212, due to a twinning two-fold axis 
parallel to the a,b diagonal

Carlos

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Structural Biology Laboratory -
Macromolecular Crystallography Unit
ITQB-UNL, Av Republica, Apartado 127
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