Jl. Dauberman et al., PACKING SELECTION OF BACILLUS-LENTUS SUBTILISIN AND A SITE-SPECIFIC VARIANT, Acta crystallographica. Section D, Biological crystallography, 50, 1994, pp. 650-656
The crystallization of a variant of Bacillus lentus subtilisin and the
native enzyme was achieved using identical conditions. The variant B.
lentus was found to grow in two crystal forms, form 1 and form 2, whe
reas the native B. lentus subtilisin enzyme crystallized in only one,
form 1. Form 2 crystals, once obtained, were found to grow much more r
apidly than form 1 crystals. The lattice contacts and structural chang
es giving both crystal forms have been examined. The results show that
crystal form 2 has a more complex network of interactions. There is a
lso a small surface conformational change in the form 2 structure rela
tive to the native and variant form 1 crystals and at least two solven
t molecules bound to the enzyme in crystal form 1 are displaced in cry
stal form 2. In addition, a site specific substitution in the variant
at position 27 induces a 'short' lattice contact which does not exist
in the native B. lentus or the form 2 variant B. lentus. These results
suggest that in some circumstances engineered variants could be desig
ned to crystallize more rapidly than the native enzyme.