Models of protein crystal growth

The growth of large and well ordered protein crystals remains the major obs tacle in protein structure determination by means of X-ray crystallography. One of the reasons is that the physico-chemical aspect of protein crystall ization process is not understood. This article reviews efforts towards for mulation of models that could become theoretical frameworks for the interpr etation of voluminous experimental data collected on protein crystal growth . Special attention is devoted to microscopic models that recognize the rol e of the shape of protein molecules in crystal formation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.