2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Plasma-Assisted Biological Macromolecular Crystallization

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23651218
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Living organism molecular science
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	ITO Tsuyohito 大阪大学, 大学院・工学研究科, 准教授 (70452472)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	ITO Takuhiro 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 生命分子システム基盤研究領域, 研究員 (70401164)
Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha)	YOKOYAMA Shigeyuki 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 生命分子システム基盤研究領域, 領域長 (00159229)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2012
Keywords	プラズマ / 結晶化 / 構造解析
Research Abstract	We have been studying a new technique “plasma-assisted biological macromolecular crystallization”. Improvement in the crystallization probability of biological macromolecules by plasma irradiation had been reported with lysozymes from hen egg whites. For understanding the mechanisms, we studied decolorization process of various dyes indicating the reaction speed by their color change. The reaction speeds largely depend on pH of the solution and the dependency is not unique. The results suggest that, for useful application of the new crystallization technique, the conditions of solution should be considered properly.