Acta Crystallographica Section D: Biological Crystallography Volume 68, Part 1 (January 2012) Copyright (c) International Union of Crystallography 2012 ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Issue Author Index][Volume Author Index] * research papers * book reviews ----------------------------------------------------------------- research papers ----------------------------------------------------------------- Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 1-12 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911046282 ] Automatic [alpha]-helix identification in Patterson maps R. Caliandro, D. Dibenedetto, G. L. Cascarano, A. Mazzone and G. Nico Synopsis: A fully automatic and efficient procedure to find [alpha]-helices in the Patterson map is described and extensively applied to test structures. Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 13-25 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911047251 ] Flexibility of the flap in the active site of BACE1 as revealed by crystal structures and molecular dynamics simulations Y. Xu, M. Li, H. Greenblatt, W. Chen, A. Paz, O. Dym, Y. Peleg, T. Chen, X. Shen, J. He, H. Jiang, I. Silman and J. L. Sussman Synopsis: Crystal structure determination, statistical analysis of all the available crystal structures and molecular dynamics simulations studies of BACE1 revealed that the multiple conformations assumed by the flap in its active site are influenced by the presence, position and orientation of a bound inhibitor as well as by the crystal packing. PDB references: 3tpj, 3tpl, 3tpp and 3tpr Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 26-34 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911048335 ] The structure of the Bach2 POZ-domain dimer reveals an intersubunit disulfide bond G. O. Rosbrook, M. A. Stead, S. B. Carr and S. C. Wright Synopsis: The POZ-domain transcriptional repressor Bach2 is regulated by oxidative stress and is involved in some human malignancies. The reported crystal structure will be important for the design of cancer therapeutics. PDB references: 3ohu and 3ohv Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 35-41 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911048402 ] Rapid visualization of hydrogen positions in protein neutron crystallographic structures P. Munshi, S.-L. Chung, M. P. Blakeley, K. L. Weiss, D. A. A. Myles and F. Meilleur Synopsis: The 1.75 AA resolution crystallographic structure of perdeuterated rubredoxin refined against neutron data collected in just 14 h revealed 269 D atoms without ambiguity. PDB references: 3rz6, 3ss2, 3ryg and 3rzt Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Open access] Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 42-56 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911049833 ] Optimal fine [varphi]-slicing for single-photon-counting pixel detectors M. Mueller, M. Wang and C. Schulze-Briese Synopsis: Fine [varphi]-slicing substantially improves scaling statistics and anomalous signal for diffraction data collection with hybrid pixel detectors. Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 57-61 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911049705 ] A new pentameric structure of rotavirus NSP4 revealed by molecular replacement A. R. Chacko, J. Jeyakanthan, G. Ueno, K. Sekar, C. D. Rao, E. J. Dodson, K. Suguna and R. J. Read Synopsis: A systematic approach by the molecular-replacement method with a dimeric search model using the program Phaser led to an unexpected pentameric structure of the NSP4:95-146 region of the ST3 strain of rotavirus, in contrast to the previously reported tetramers. PDB reference: 3miw Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 62-68 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911049985 ] Single-wavelength phasing strategy for quasi-racemic protein crystal diffraction data M. R. Sawaya, B. L. Pentelute, S. B. H. Kent and T. O. Yeates Synopsis: New phasing opportunities arise when crystals are grown from a racemic or quasi-racemic mixture of a protein molecule and its synthetic mirror image enantiomer. In this study, good phases are obtained from single wavelength (SAD) data by exploiting the nearly centrosymmetric nature of a quasi-racemic crystal. Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 69-81 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911050360 ] The use of trimethylamine N-oxide as a primary precipitating agent and related methylamine osmolytes as cryoprotective agents for macromolecular crystallography H. Marshall, M. Venkat, N. S. Hti Lar Seng, J. Cahn and D. H. Juers Synopsis: The stabilizing osmolyte trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is shown to be an efficient primary precipitant for protein crystal growth. In addition to TMAO, two other methylamine osmolytes, sarcosine and betaine, are shown to be effective cryoprotective agents for protein crystal cooling. PDB references: 3t28, 3t29, 3t25, 3t26, 3t27, 3t2a, 3t2h, 3t2i and 3t2j Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Open access] Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 82-92 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911050682 ] Structural features and kinetic characterization of alanine racemase from Staphylococcus aureus (Mu50) E. R. Scaletti, S. R. Luckner and K. L. Krause Synopsis: The tertiary structure and kinetic properties of alanine racemase from Staphylococcus aureus are described and compared to other related alanine racemase structures. PDB reference: 4a3q Online 9 December 2011 ----------------------------------------------------------------- book reviews ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Open access] Acta Cryst. (2012). D68, 93-94 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444911051456 ] Crystals, X-rays and Proteins: Comprehensive Protein Crystallography Online 14 December 2011 -----------------------------------------------------------------