A tetragonal crystal form of horse spleen apoferritin and its relationship to the cubic modification

Abstract

Horse spleen apoferritin has been crystallized as tetragonal plates and needles with a unit cell with a = b = 147 ± 0.5 A ̊ and c = 154.4 ± 0.5 A ̊ . The space group is P42 12 and the unit cell contains two molecules in a pseudo-body-centred arrangement. The intensity distributions and calculated rotation functions of tetragonal and cubic crystals have been compared. The symmetry of the diffraction patterns from cubic crystals indicates that the molecules have 432 symmetry with their 4-fold axes lying along the cube axes. In the tetragonal crystals one molecular 4-fold axis lies parallel to c, the unique axis, while the rest of the molecular point symmetry is not used by the lattice. Instead the remaining 4-fold axes of the two molecules, which lie in planes perpendicular to c, are rotated ± 17.5 ° with respect to the tetragonal a axis. The finding that apoferritin reassembled from subunits can be crystallized in both tetragonal and cubic forms confirms its conformational similarity to native molecules.