view article
Figure 1
Automated microbatch-under-oil crystallization phase diagram of AtPdx1.3. (a) Schematic of the experimental design. Phase diagram points (yellow triangle) are generated by mixing a protein stock (green circle), crystallization cocktail (red circle) and diluent (blue circle) using a three-channel dispensing tip. Corner well concentrations (brown circles) are defined by the experimenter, with intermediate wells (cyan circles) interpolated by the software to create concentration gradients roughly parallel to the expected phase boundaries (red and purple lines). Drop volume and the number of wells are user-defined. The metastable boundary (purple line) is identified by repeating the experiment with seed stock, introduced via the crystallization cocktail or separately using a four-channel dispensing tip. (b) Representative 2.0 µl microbatch-under-oil drops in a typical AtPdx1.3 crystallization experiment. Crystals did not form in the metastable region unless seed stock was added. (c) Phase diagram derived from (b). Blue diamonds indicate nucleation-zone conditions without seed stock (spontaneous growth), while red diamonds indicate metastable conditions, where crystal growth required the addition of seed stock.

IUCrJ
Volume 13| Part 2| March 2026| Pages 159-168
ISSN: 2052-2525
https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052252526000448