Hi all, Here is a problem that's been annoying me, and demanding levels of thought all out of proportion with the importance of the project:
I have two related crystal forms of the same small protein. In both cases, the data look quite decent, and extend beyond 2 A, but the refinement stalls with statistics that are just bad enough to make me deeply uncomfortable. However, the maps look pretty good, and there's no obvious path to push the refinement further. Xtriage doesn't raise any red flags, nor does running the data through the Yeates twinning server. Xtal form 1: P22(1)2(1), a=29.0, b=57.4, c=67.4; 2 molecules/AU. Resolution of data ~ 1.9 Å. Refinement converges with R/Rfree = 0.24/0.27 Xtal form 2: P2(1)2(1)2(1), a=59.50, b=61.1, c=67.2; 4 molecules/AU. Resolution of data ~ 1.7 Å. Refinement converges w/ R/Rfree = 0.21/0.26 As you would expect, the packing is essentially the same in both crystal forms. It's interesting to note (but is it relevant?) that the packing is quite dense--solvent content is only 25-30%. This kind of stalling at high R values smells like a twin problem, but it's not clear to me what specific kind of twinning might explain this behavior. Any thoughts about what I might be missing here? Thanks, Pat --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick J. Loll, Ph. D. Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Director, Biochemistry Graduate Program Drexel University College of Medicine Room 10-102 New College Building 245 N. 15th St., Mailstop 497 Philadelphia, PA 19102-1192 USA (215) 762-7706 pat.l...@drexelmed.edu