A preliminary study of space- and ground-grown insulin crystals by X-ray diffraction and by light scattering tomography

For the first time, both X-ray diffraction and light scattering tomography were used to study the same set of space- and ground-grown protein crystals . X-ray diffraction of the insulin crystals grown from T6 insulin solutions by temperature reduction showed that space-grown crystals diffract to high er resolution then those grown on the ground. The light scattering tomograp hs revealed that the space-grown crystals contained very few spherical micr o-defects while the ground-grown ones had large numbers of extended micro-d efects and dislocations. The tomographs also gave insight into the methods of defect formation. This study marks the beginning of qualification of lig ht scattering tomograph as a tool for determining the suitability of a prot ein for use in X-ray diffraction studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.