Fred, as you know discontinuous lattice is not physically possible. Therefore first make sure to exclude your and deposition errors like a wrong space group and cell constants. However, it may be that some molecules are disordered and therefore absent in the structure solution. If there are no described errors, it is possible that it is similar case to the structure we published last year: Renko et al., Partial rotational lattice order–disorder in stefin B crystals. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2014 Apr 1; 70(Pt 4): 1015–1025. Published online 2014 Mar 19. doi: 10.1107/S1399004714000091 PMCID: PMC3975888
best regards, dusan > On Feb 7, 2015, at 1:00 AM, CCP4BB automatic digest system > <lists...@jiscmail.ac.uk> wrote: > > > Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 11:58:45 +0100 > From: Kerff Fred <fke...@ulg.ac.be> > Subject: Absence of contact between layers in a crystal > > Hello, > > Looking at structure 2HR0 ("The structure of complement C3b provides insights > into complement activation and regulation. »,Abdul Ajees, A., Gunasekaran, > K., Volanakis, J.E., Narayana, S.V., Kotwal, G.J., Krishna Murthy, H.M.; > (2006) Nature 444: 221-225), I noticed the absence of contacts between layers > in the crystal. Is it something that has already been observed in other > crystals? > > Best regards, > > Fred > ----- > Frédéric Kerff > Chercheur qualifié F.R.S.-FNRS > Cristallographie des protéines > Centre d'Ingénierie des Protéines > Université de Liège Dr. Dusan Turk, Prof. Head of Structural Biology Group http://bio.ijs.si/sbl/ Head of Centre for Protein and Structure Production Centre of excellence for Integrated Approaches in Chemistry and Biology of Proteins, Scientific Director http://www.cipkebip.org/ Professor of Structural Biology at IPS "Jozef Stefan" e-mail: dusan.t...@ijs.si phone: +386 1 477 3857 Dept. of Biochem.& Mol.& Struct. Biol. fax: +386 1 477 3984 Jozef Stefan Institute Jamova 39, 1 000 Ljubljana,Slovenia Skype: dusan.turk (voice over internet: www.skype.com