Bioc 585 - Structure Section Syllabus

Macromolecular Crystallography

The objectives for this section are (1) to obtain a rough understanding of how macromolecular crystallography works and (2) to learn how to critically assess a crystallographic structure report.

We will cover the following topics:

1. Diffraction theory
2. ‘Phase’ determination
3. Model building and refinement
4. Structure assessment
5. Brief discussion of electron diffraction and NMR structure determinations, if time permits.

We (Bryan Arendall and Bill Montfort) will introduce molecular modeling to you using the Swiss PDB viewer in our new computer lab. With this free software, you will learn to display PDB files and electron density maps on a PC. The software can also be used on Macintosh and Unix-based platforms. The initial exercise is described at:

http://www.biochem.arizona.edu/classes/bioc585

We will also visit the local X-ray laboratory to see protein crystals and an X-ray diffractometer.

Office hours: We will hold office hours in the computer lab after class on Mondays and Wednesdays. E-mail: montfort@u.arizona.edu; arendall@u.arizona.edu.

Bibliography

Crystallography Made Crystal Clear, Gale Rhodes, Academic Press 1993. Introduction for the non-specialist.

X-ray Structure Determination, G. Stout & L. Jensen, Wiley, 1989. A very clearly written introduction to small molecule crystallography, including heavy atom methods.

Principles of Protein X-ray Crystallography, Jan Drenth, Springer-Verlag, 1994. Thorough discussion of protein crystallographic theory.

Protein Crystallography. T. Blundell & L. Johnson, Academic Press, 1976. Mixture of practical and theoretical crystallography.

Practical Protein Crystallography. D. McRee, Academic Press, 1993. Many useful tips for the laboratory.

Crystals , X-rays and Proteins. D. Sherwood, Longman, 1976. Excellent treatment of diffraction theory with respect to crystallography.