Re: [ccp4bb] Can DDM give egregious false positives when using it to crystallize membrane proteins?

2017-06-16 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
These kind of "crystals" are very common with DDM, I guess they could be called spherulites. Sometimes they develop one or a few straight edges after a while. I don't think these are DDM crystals as DDM is very soluble, but protein-detergent crystals that are dominated by weak detergent micelle

Re: [ccp4bb] Poor density fit.

2017-05-04 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
This has been discussed before, I guess more than once I think most people (I'm sure i'll be corrected if wrong) would favor not removing any atoms or setting occupancies to zero and let the invisible atoms be accounted for by high B-factors (either set manually or just letting refinement d

Re: [ccp4bb] Sliconizing of cover-slips

2017-04-28 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
To me this begs the question: why do this at all? A cost issue? The Hampton coverslips work pretty well even with detergents that drastically lower surface tension like C8E4. Those of a UK competitor that i shall not name are not as good, in our humble experience. Bert __

Re: [ccp4bb] NCS difference

2017-04-24 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Not quite sure what you mean but I suppose you refined with NCS restraints and the red bar means that your chains in those regions are not identical. I would turn NCS restraints off during refinement, with your resolution there is no real good reason to include them. You probably have to do some

Re: [ccp4bb] Accidental crystallization of E. coli protein

2017-04-05 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
I do think one has to consider whether there is a sufficient scientific advance to justify publication. After all, peer reviewers are already overworked. From the information given I don't think I would try to publish this but I'd certainly consider depositing in the PDB and contaminant database

Re: [ccp4bb] Using a codon-optimised gene to improve protein solubility

2017-04-03 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
I think it is very unlikely codon optimisation will improve solubility, so I'd save my money and use it to try other things. Assuming you have tried (much) lower temperatures for expression you could consider dialing down expression via a different promoter or low-copy number plasmid. I assume y

Re: [ccp4bb] Dimer in SDS-PAGE

2017-03-02 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
lical membrane proteins for SDS-PAGE. Could i please ask, does this also apply to type I membrane proteins that only have a single a-helix, or is it just membrane proteins that are predominantly helical? Thanks Rich On 22 February 2017 at 19:18, Bert Van-Den-Berg mailto:bert.van-den-b...@newcastle.

Re: [ccp4bb] Dimer in SDS-PAGE

2017-02-22 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
like others I'm not clear why you care where your protein runs on SDS-PAGE. I think the band you're seeing is in fact the tetramer, suggesting your protein (like KcsA) is very stable. Helical membrane proteins often migrate faster than expected (by their Mw) on SDS-PAGE. Also, never boil helica

[ccp4bb] Postdoc position in structural microbiology at Newcastle University (UK)

2016-11-29 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Dear All, A position is available immediately for an enthusiastic and highly motivated Research Assistant/Associate in the laboratories of Prof Bert van den Berg and Dr David Bolam within the Institute for Cell & Molecular Biosciences <http://www.ncl.ac.uk/camb/> at Newcastle Unive

Re: [ccp4bb] Two SGs in one droplet?

2016-10-28 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
It is entirely possible (fairly common) to have two different crystals in one drop. If the habits are the same I'd expect the same cell, but that doesn't have to be the case. Likewise, if the habits are different I'd expect different cells, but again that is not necessarily the case. bert __

Re: [ccp4bb] cryo condition

2015-05-04 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
How long are you cryoprotecting for? You don't really need more than a few seconds. If I have sensitive crystals i tend to just "swipe" them slowly through the final CP solution and often that works. If I would leave them in the CP solution for more than say 30 seconds the crystals would behave

Re: [ccp4bb] Picking water molecules at 4A structure.

2015-04-17 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
John, the lower-resolution datasets in your paper were generated by truncating a high-res dataset, i.e. the "lo-res" datasets are of great quality. Would the conclusions still be valid if the data are "true low-res"? (i.e. I/sigI 1.5-2 in last shell)? Tx Bert Fr

Re: [ccp4bb] Problem in optimization

2015-04-11 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Dear , If you want to get useful advice you have to give a bit more information. What did you try? Also, please do not attach large images to your message. Thanks and good luck, bert From: CCP4 bulletin board [CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] on behalf of 高艺娜

Re: [ccp4bb] phosphoprotein crystallization

2015-01-19 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Try running a regular SDS page gel w/o boiling your sample. Some P proteins run differently on gel due to the conformational change that is induced. I agree that you probably have a mixture in which the P form might be the minor species. I'd probably try to get the IEX to work; given that the sa

Re: [ccp4bb] Water molecules after refinement

2014-11-19 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
This may be a useful paper to read, although it is a bit dated: Acta Cryst. (1999). D55, 479-483 How many water molecules can be detected by protein crystallography? In general, 3 A resolution is beyond where you can reliably add waters (I start adding them only at 2.7-2.8 A resolution or bett

Re: [ccp4bb] Amino acid side chains without density

2014-11-11 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
I think you'll find that this is not a naive question.. I doubt there is a consensus for this. Neither option is ideal, mainly because of possible confusion generated for non-crystallographers. My preference is to include the side chain but set the atoms i do not see to zero occupancy. The P

Re: [ccp4bb] crystallization with hydrophobic ligands

2014-10-15 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Yes, this is tough. We mostly have used DMSO or DMF. You can try detergents, but they tend not to be that effective in solubilisation and they might bind to your protein rather than the compound you 'd like to bind. If you'd like to be adventurous you could try using cyclodextrins as a solubili

Re: [ccp4bb] Yeast membrane protein extraction

2014-10-08 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Hi, I would stay away from the Mem-PER kit since the detergents in there are possibly quite harsh (?). I doubt that detergents would cause lysis of yeast cell walls in any case. There is a budget-friendly alternative for mechanical breaking of yeast and that is the bead beater, sold by biospec.

Re: [ccp4bb] experimental phasing at low resolution

2014-06-03 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
First, I wouldn't worry about the extent of SeMet incorporation. If you have followed an established protocol (either using an auxotroph or regular strain) the incorporation should be fine. For your SeMet data, what is the redundancy and resolution? In my experience it is often very hard to fi

Re: [ccp4bb] verifying protein crystal content by mass spectrometry or SDS-PAGE

2014-05-02 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
In principle this is straightforward, but you'll need reasonably-sized crystals. You'll have to wash them very well in mother liquor (protein buffer will probably dissolve the crystals). I do at least 3 serial transfers in large (5-10 ul) drops (with a loop), and for each transfer I move the cr

Re: [ccp4bb] Dehydration

2014-04-22 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
one thing you can try and which we have used successfully (although not with an organic as the main precipitant) is too add more precipitant to the well and equilibrate for say one or two days. We often use LiCl salt as it is very soluble (you can make a 10 M solution). You can try adding to 1 M

Re: [ccp4bb] Se-Met and disulfides

2014-02-27 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
I wouldn't worry about oxidation of SeMet; at least I never have. A number of years back there was a paper published actually claiming that oxidised SeMet has a higher and sharper absorption edge than reduced SeMet. Of course mixed forms could complicate things but I would just purify like you d

Re: [ccp4bb] Sister CCPs

2014-02-14 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Gerard's beautifully worded message underscores in my mind what a great resource for all kinds of information this bulletin board is. I have many times been impressed by the time people take to answer queries, even if they sometimes seem perfectly "googlable" to me. As a community we can be pro

[ccp4bb] twinning fun

2014-01-28 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Dear all, I recently collected several datasets for a protein that needs experimental phasing. The crystals are hexagonal plates, and (automatic) data processing suggests with high confidence that the space group is P622. This is where the fun begins. For some datasets (processed in P622), the i

Re: [ccp4bb] Best compounds for heavy atom soaks

2014-01-15 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
You don't mention the condition, which is important (esp pH). Best pH values are 6-8. >From personal experience: try K2PtCl4 and OsCl3. Try ~5 mM for 30-60' (quick soak). The advantage of osmium salts is that they give a nice color to your crystals so you know something is binding. HTH and GL, B

Re: [ccp4bb] Membrane protein structures from mammalian expression

2014-01-07 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Off the top of my head: Rhesus protein RhcG by the Stroud group (3HD6). Steven White's website should be good to get this info relatively fast; in most cases the expression system is listed. bert From: CCP4 bulletin board [CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] on behalf

Re: [ccp4bb] Membrane fractionation

2014-01-06 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
No real need, some folks do it like that. However, you'll need to fish out your protein from more junk and you may have more proteolytic degradation. Also, you will need more detergent compared to "membrane-only" extraction, especially when using mild detergents. bert ___

Re: [ccp4bb] small crystals

2013-12-05 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
depending on how extensively you have screened so far, the most efficient thing to do may be to change the protein: different orthologs, truncations, mutagenesis of "entropy rich" clusters, change of tag location or tag cleavage etc. From: CCP4 bulletin board [C

Re: [ccp4bb] membrane protein optimization

2013-10-23 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
The problem you're having is a very common one, unfortunately. There are about 10,000 things you can try to improve diffractiongenerally going from low to "solvable" resolution is very, very hard. I would say the two most important ones are (i) to vary the detergent and (ii) to go to another

Re: [ccp4bb] Off topic: Gel filtration of membrane protein

2013-07-26 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
The first thing is that you'll have to increase the salt concentration in your buffer. 5 mM is way too low and may cause non-specific binding of the protein to the resin. 100 mM is the minimum you should use. There is nothing in your buffer that will precipitate, so you should't have to worry ab

Re: [ccp4bb] Concentrating purified membrane protein

2013-07-14 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Well, you'll never loose the protein in the flowthrough if you don't discard the flowthrough.which i never do until I'm sure about what happened to the protein. But yes, try different Mw cutoff concentrators until you find the highest one that works. Depending on the purification your sample

Re: [ccp4bb] Detergent solubilization step (membrane proteins)

2013-07-10 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
I could add that even for membrane proteins that may not be stable in eg DM after purification, DM may still be a viable option for extraction since there will be large amounts of stabilising lipids present. Just make sure you change to a milder detergent for the post-extraction steps. Bert ___

Re: [ccp4bb] Detergent solubilization step (membrane proteins)

2013-07-10 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Hi Raji, the amount of detergent used is more important than the concentration. The more cells you have, the more detergent is required. To give you an idea, we tend to use 100 ml of 1% detergent (=1 g) for 12 liters of cells (Ecoli) of OD600 1. This is probably on the low side; if cost weren't

Re: [ccp4bb] Heterogeneity during purification

2013-07-09 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
since your protein aggregates even in a mild detergent you may have to find an ortholog that is more stable. however, there are a few things you can try before moving on (in arbitrary order): 1. add glycerol during purification (5-20%) 2. get rid of the imidazole as fast as possible after Ni. Man

Re: [ccp4bb] crystals disappear

2013-06-16 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
Disappearance of crystals is fairly common and not specific to DDM or indeed any detergent as it also occurs for soluble proteins. Even after reaching "equilibrium" conditions still change (evaporation, instability of components, proteolysis, etc). The inverse also happens, that is formation of

[ccp4bb] postdoc position available in antibiotics uptake, Newcastle University (UK)

2013-03-18 Thread Bert Van-Den-Berg
icant. The successful candidate will have a PhD or previous post-doctoral experience in X-ray crystallography and biochemistry or biophysics and should have published at least one first author paper in a leading journal. Further information regarding this post can be obtained by contacting Prof Ber