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Figure 4
Strategies for preparing microcrystals. (a) Heptose isomerase GmhA protein crystals from Burkholderia pseudomallei showing seed optimization for size control and homogeneity. The first seed stock was made using the Hampton Research Seed Bead and was combined with mother liquor and protein, resulting in non-optimal crystals for serial data collection. The same seed stock was then sonicated for 2 min at 60% amplification (20 s on and 20 s off) to produce smaller seeds. These produced much smaller crystals with the same conditions. The scale bar is 20 µm. (b) Methylisocitrate lyase PrpB crystals from Coxiella burnetii optimized for serial data collection by increasing the concentration of PEG 1K (Stuart et al., 2025BB138). The crystals are shown to switch morphology upon increasing the PEG 1K concentration as well as reducing the crystal size. The scale bar is 65 µm. (c) Pdx1, an Arabidopsis enzyme involved in vitamin B6 biosynthesis, shows that an increase in salt concentration drastically reduces the crystal size and increases the number of nucleation events. The scale bar is 300 µm.

IUCrJ
Volume 12| Part 3| May 2025|
ISSN: 2052-2525
https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052252525001484