Main description:

The precise knowledge of the structure of biological macromolecules forms the basis of understanding their function and their mechanism of action. It also lays the foundation for rational protein and drug design. The only method to obtain this knowledge is still crystallography. At present, the structures of about 400 proteins are known at or nearly at atomic proteins. However, only two of them are membrane proteins or complexes of the membrane proteins. The reasons for the difference is not the crystals of membrane proteins resists forming special problems when being analysed. The reason is that the membrane proteins resist into forming into well-ordered crystals. The intention of this book is to help to produce well-ordered crystals proteins and to provide guidelines, it is aimed at both biochemists and protein crystallographer's.

Contents:

1. Useful Principles for the Crystallization of proteins 2. Detergent Phenomena in Membrane Protein crystallization 3. General and Practical aspects of membrane protein crystallization 4. Crystallizing Membrane Proteins 5. Protein-Detergent Micellar Solutions for the Crystallization of Membrane Proteins 6. Crystallization of purple Bacterial Antenna Complexes 7. Crystallization of Reaction Centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides 8.Crystallization of the Light-Harvesting Chlorophyll a/b Protein Complex from Chloroplast Membranes 9. The crystallization of the Ca2 -ATPase of Sarcoplasmic Reticulum 10. Two-Dimensional Crystals of the Rhodoseudomonas viridis Photosynthetic Reaction Center 11. Preparation of Membrane Crystals of Mitochondrial