Technical Improvements for High-resolution X-ray Crystallography from Space Grown Crystals

Abstract

Protein X-ray crystallography is one of the most powerful methods to obtain the structural information at atomic resolution. However the crystallization is still most difficult process. And the diffraction resolution depends on the quality of crystals. Crystallization in microgravity environment is one of the most possible techniques for obtaining well-diffracted crystals. We have joined several space experiments of JAXA High-quality Protein Crystal Growth projects. These projects contain the crystallization in microgravity environment and improvements of techniques for high-resolution X-ray crystallography. Developments and improvements of the techniques are important to utilize the rare chance of experiments in microgravity environment. We report the modification of crystallization condition for microgravity environment and technical improvements for high-resolution X-ray crystallography from space grown crystals.