PROTEIN CRYSTAL-GROWTH IN THE ADVANCED PROTEIN CRYSTALLIZATION FACILITY ON THE LMS MISSION - A COMPARISON OF SULFOLOBUS-SOLFATARICUS ALCOHOL-DEHYDROGENASE CRYSTALS GROWN ON THE GROUND AND IN MICROGRAVITY

Crystals of alcohol dehydrogenase from Sulfolobus solfataricus were gr own in the Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility during the Life a nd Microgravity Sciences Spacelab mission on the US Space Shuttle. Lar ge diffracting crystals were obtained by dialysis, whereas only poor-q uality crystals were obtained by vapour diffusion. The quality of both the microgravity and ground-based crystals was analysed by X-ray diff raction. There was some improvement in terms of size and diffraction r esolution limit for the microgravity crystals. However, the twinning o bserved in the Earth-grown crystals was also present for those grown i n microgravity.