Determining optimal conditions for the production of well diffracting crystals is a key step in every biocrystallography project. Here, a microfluidic device is described that enables the production of crystals by counter-diffusion and their direct on-chip analysis by serial crystallography at room temperature. Nine 'non-model' and diverse biomacromolecules, including seven soluble proteins, a membrane protein and an RNA duplex, were crystallized and treated on-chip with a variety of standard techniques including micro-seeding, crystal soaking with ligands and crystal detection by fluorescence. Furthermore, the crystal structures of four proteins and an RNA were determined based on serial data collected on four synchrotron beamlines, demonstrating the general applicability of this multipurpose chip concept.
Representative scheme of Lipase_3 structure and an image from PDBsum server
Databases
PDB-Sum
6HW1 Previously Class, Architecture, Topology and Homologous superfamily - PDB-Sum server
FSSP
6HW1Fold classification based on Structure-Structure alignment of Proteins - FSSP server
