X-ray crystallography

Flow chart showing the major steps in X-ray protein crystallography. (Image from Wikimedia courtesy Thomas Splettstoesser.

About 85% of the models (entries) in the World Wide Protein Data Bank were determined by X-ray crystallography. (Most of the remaining 15% were determined by solution nuclear magnetic resonance.) Protein crystallography remains very difficult, despite many recent advances. For every new protein sequence targeted for X-ray crystallography, about one in twenty is solved. Publication of solved structures involves depositing an atomic coordinate file (PDB file) in the World Wide Protein Data Bank.

See AlsoSee Also

• Nature of 3D Structural Data
• X-ray Crystallography at Wikipedia
• Protein Crystal Gallery

• Quality assessment for molecular models
• Resolution
• R value
• Free R

• Highest impact structures of all time.
• Nobel Prizes for 3D Molecular Structure

Further ReadingFurther Reading

• Crystallography Made Crystal Clear: a guide for users of macromolecular models, a book by Gale Rhodes.