X-Ray crystallography in structural chemistry and molecular biology

Abstract

The X-ray crystallography technique has greatly expanded in scope with the development and use of instrumentation at synchrotron sources, particularly in ‘large molecule’ protein crystallography and now also in ‘small molecule’ chemical crystallography. A variety of technical themes are described to illustrate this. Structure–function relationships are then discussed, firstly, in thermotropic liquid crystals, with respect to two octahexylphthalo-cyanines, and secondly, in the molecular recognition of the receptor binding site of the protein concanavalin A for its cognate sugar ligands.