Protein structure determination by x-ray crystallography

X-ray biocrystallography is the most powerful method to obtain a macromolecular structure. The improvement of computational technologies in recent years and the development of new and powerful computer programs together with the enormous increment in the number of protein structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank, render the resolution of new structures easier than in the past. The aim of this chapter is to provide practical procedures useful for solving a new structure. It is impossible to give more than a flavor of what the x-ray crystallographic technique entails in one brief chapter; therefore, this chapter focuses its attention on the Molecular Replacement method. Whenever applicable, this method allows the resolution of macromolecular structures starting from a single data set and a search model downloaded from the PDB, with the aid only of computer work.