Estimated effects of silicone glue on protein crystal growth

Abstract

Silicone glue (modified silicone polymer) is widely used for both experiments involving inorganic crystal growth and those involving organic materials like proteins. This material is very useful for building a hand-made experiment setup or for fixing protein crystals to specific locations. Though silicone glue is regarded as harmful to proteins, no systematic verification was performed to investigate its impurity effects on protein crystal growth. We focused on and estimated the impurity effects of silicone glue on protein crystal growth. Hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) was used as a model protein. Surface morphology and step velocity of tetragonal lysozyme crystals in the presence and absence of silicone glue were investigated by laser confocal interference contrast microscopy (LCM-DIM). The surface morphology of a tetragonal lysozyme crystal in the presence of silicone glue corresponded to that grown in a lysozyme solution without silicone glue. The dependency of step velocities on supersaturation in the presence of silicone glue also exhibited the same tendency as that of a glue-free system. These two phenomena indicate that the silicone glue did not act as an impurity on lysozyme crystals. Therefore, we conclude that silicone glue is an effective material for various unique experiments involving protein crystals or for applying new methods to create large, high-quality protein crystals.