Crystal Structure Analysis of SH2 Domains in Complex with Phosphotyrosine Peptides

Abstract

While the number of tertiary structures solved by cryoelectron microscopy has rapidly increased, X-ray crystallography is still a popular method to determine the tertiary structure of proteins at atomic resolution. However, there are still problems associated with X-ray crystallography, including crystallization and crystal twinning. Indeed, we encountered crystallization and twinning problems in the crystal structure analysis of the SH2 domains complexed with a phosphorylated peptide derived from the oncoprotein CagA. In this chapter, we describe the methods used to overcome these problems. In addition, we provide details of the optimization of the crystallization conditions and cryo-conditions, which are usually not given in published crystal structure analyses.

Keywords: Anaerobic crystallization; Cryoprotectant; Crystallization; Crystallographic refinement; Microseeding; Phosphotyrosine peptide; Twinning; X-ray crystallography.