So the implication is that some of these treatments might allow the protein to overcome energetic barriers that are prohibitive in solution--after the protein is already in the solid state and not in solution any more?
Another view is that crystallization is a result of stabilizing conformations that are accessible in solution. On the point of physiological relevance, it wasn't mentioned in the original question. James On Feb 10, 2012, at 1:34 PM, Nat Echols wrote: > On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 12:29 PM, James Stroud <xtald...@gmail.com> wrote: >> How could they not be snapshots of conformations adopted in solution? > > Packing billions of copies of an irregularly-shaped protein into a > compact lattice and freezing it to 100K isn't necessarily > representative of "solution", especially when your solution contains > non-physiological amounts of salt and various organics (and possibly > non-physiological pH too). > > -Nat
