Protein crystallization with DNA templates

Abstract

Protein crystallization plays a significant role in three-dimensional structural analysis and protein purification. It is important to increase the crystallization efficiency, which is possible by adding heterogeneous templates in crystallization systems. DNA is biologically compatible and artificially designable polymer, which is easy to extract. In this study, single- and double-stranded DNA of precise sequences were designed and used as templates to promote protein crystallization of lysozyme and catalase. Influence of DNA, single-stranded DNA with 10, 20, 40 bases and double-stranded DNA with 10, 20, 40 base pairs, were investigated. The success rate of obtaining crystals of lysozyme and catalase in equal period was significantly improved with the addition of DNA comparing without templates added. Double-stranded DNA led to higher nucleation rate than that with single-stranded DNA. The promotion of nucleation was more obvious at low concentration of protein solution and with longer chain DNA templates. Crystal number and crystallization rate was enhanced with addition of long double-stranded DNA templates. All the results confirm that DNA is an effective polymer additive to enhance protein crystallization, especially for the application of the scarce protein crystallization.