Epitaxial Growth of Lysozyme on Fatty Acid Thin Films

Abstract

Orientations of hen egg white lysozyme crystals nucleated on fatty acid thin films were investigated by atomic force microscopy and optical microscopy. It is found that lysozyme crystals with their {110} planes parallel to fatty acid thin films formed on mica substrates, tend to arrange along the three directions coinciding with the 6-fold symmetry of the mica surface. In addition, it was clearly shown that the length of the fatty acid molecules is crucial for inducing the epitaxial growth of lysozyme crystals. The mechanism to induce this epitaxial growth on fatty acid films is discussed.

Impurity effects on orientation of lysozyme crystals nucleated on fatty acid thin films

“…Relationship between the angle of c-axis of {1 1 0}-oriented crystals relative to the direction of b-axis of mica and the ratio of {1 1 0}-oriented crystals is shown in Fig. 2 our previous study [3], the histograms show peaks at 01 and 7601 in both cases. These three directions correspond to the six-fold symmetry of mica surface, which is thought to be composed of SiO 4 tetrahedrons.…”

“…Three kinds of thin films are known: monolayer films, normal films, and lateral films. Monolayer films were used because lysozyme crystals are epitaxially grown on monolayer films [2,3]. The surface structures and coverages of the films were evaluated by atomic force microscopy (AFM; Nanoscope E, Digital Instruments Inc.), using microfabricated triangular Si 3 N 4 cantilevers (spring constant 0.12 N/m) for observation.…”

“…For example, although McPherson and Shlichta [1] demonstrated the epitaxial growth of protein on inorganic crystal substrates about 20 years ago, the reproducibility of the experimental results has yet to be confirmed. On the other hand, recent studies have revealed that organic thin films induce the epitaxial growth of protein crystals [2,3]. This indicates that the selection of appropriate substrates is the most important for the epitaxial growth of proteins.…”

The sandwich method for protein crystallization and its effect on crystal growth

“…System stabilization includes the physical stabilization of liquid drop by slowing down the micro-circulation and isolating from external disturbance, and a slow change on the concentration of solution during the entire crystallization process (especially the critical nucleation stage), and so on. As heterogeneous nucleation and epitaxial growth are effective for inorganic crystal growth, a wide range of materials, such as mineral surfaces [7,8], lipid layers [9][10][11][12], porous silicon [13], chemically modified mica surfaces [14,15], protein thin film [16], and templates of poly-L-lysine surfaces [17,18], have been tested as substrates for protein crystallization, but none has been shown general effectiveness.…”

Core–Shell and Layer‐by‐Layer Assembly of 3D DNA Crystals

“…[40,41] This type of core-shell crystallization has not been previously demonstrated for biomacromolecules, though DNA has been used as a connective material for the layered construction of nanoparticle superlattices, [28] and a number of approaches based on epitaxial growth of protein crystals from various surfaces have been developed. [42][43][44][45][46] The BET66 oligonucleotide, d(GGACAGCTGGGAG), self-assembles in the presence of divalent cations to crystallize as a porous 3D biomaterial solid. High-resolution crystal structures of BET66 and related DNA sequences [47,48] showed interactions between DNA strands are mediated by both Crick-Watson and noncanonical base pairing (Figure S1a).…”