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Lanthanide complexes for protein crystallography
O. Maury, F. Riobé
We are developping new lanthanide complexes as phasing agents for the structural resolution of protein crystals. The introduction of such heavy elements in specific crystallographic sites allows the use of phasing methods that currently require a derivatization of proteins through selenation of methionyne moieties.
We also demonstrate that supramolecular interactions occuring in presence of the lanthanide complex may promote the organisation of a better crystal packing. This behavior opens new perspectives for the study of protein crystallogenesis and the future development of crystallization agents. This project is support by ANR (Ln23; leader: O. Maury) in collaboration with E. Girard (IBS, Grenoble) et N. Giraud (ICMMO, Orsay).