THE 2ND SPACE EXPERIMENT OF PROTEIN CRYSTALLIZATION WITH DOMESTIC FACILITIES

The second experiment of protein crystallization was performed on dome stic re-entry satellite FSW-2 in 1994-07. The results are superior to the ones of the first mission in 1992: 9 of 10 different proteins were crystallized in space, and 70% of the total 48 samples yielded single crystals. Besides hen egg-white lysozyme which grew high-quality crys tals on the first mission, an acidic phospholipase A(2)(aPLA(2)) from snake venom and hemoglobin from Anser Indicus produced good-quality cr ystals suitable for X-ray diffraction analyses. The positive effect of microgravity on protein crystal growth is verified again at this time .