Static and Dynamic Light Scattering applications in Protein Crystallogenesis

YEPES-OCHOA I; MECHALY AE; AGIRRE J; BELLOMIO A; CABO-BILBAO A; GONZALEZ MAÑAS JM; GUÉRIN DM

Boston, Massachusetts

Congreso; Biophysical Society 53rd Annual Meeting; 2009

Biophysical Society

In this communication we give many examples about different uses of Static (SLS) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) in a protein crystallography laboratory. Although the advantages of both techniques are well documented in the literature their use in the crystallographic community is almost limited to determining the sample polydispersity index (PDI). Nevertheless, both dispersion techniques can be powerful tools in helping protein crystallogenesis. Here we illustrate some applications of both techniques to test protein, virus, and protein/lipid/detergent solutions. We illustrate how useful and easy is to determine -aside from the PDI- the oligomerization state, the molecular weight, to find pH-dependent aggregations, to predict crystallization conditions through the Second Viral Coefficient, and to measure detergent´s CMC and lipid-detergent micelles sizes. In sum, we encourage crystallographers to exploit their DLS/SLS equipments in order to maximize the information about the state and conditions of the protein solution prior to set-up crystallization experiments.