TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of a magnetic field on the orientation of hen egg-white lysozyme crystals
AU - Yanagiya, Shin Ichiro
AU - Sazaki, Gen
AU - Durbin, Stephen D.
AU - Miyashita, Satoru
AU - Nakada, Toshitaka
AU - Komatsu, Hiroshi
AU - Watanabe, Kazuo
AU - Motokawa, Mitsuhiro
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Nikon Instech Co. for the loan of an optical microscope. They are also grateful for partial support by two Grants-in-Aid (Nos. 09044055 and 10555001) of Scientific Research of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, as well as the support by a fund from REIMEI Research Resources of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. This study was carried out as a part of “Ground Research Announcement for the Space Utilization” promoted by NASDA and Japan Space Forum. We are also grateful for the use of the facilities and assistance of the staff at the High Field Laboratory for Superconducting Materials, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University.
PY - 1999/1/15
Y1 - 1999/1/15
N2 - Recent experiments have shown that lysozyme crystallization in a magnetic field of the order of 1 T can result in a significant degree of orientation of the crystals. We present more extensive experimental results and propose a model to account for this phenomenon. Because of the small susceptibility anisotropy of most protein molecules, the orienting effect is unimportant for smaller aggregates, even those much larger than a critical nucleus. However, during sedimentation crystals grow larger and are more likely to become aligned. The degree of orientation thus depends on crystal growth rate and container geometry, in addition to magnetic field strength, as we have confirmed experimentally.
AB - Recent experiments have shown that lysozyme crystallization in a magnetic field of the order of 1 T can result in a significant degree of orientation of the crystals. We present more extensive experimental results and propose a model to account for this phenomenon. Because of the small susceptibility anisotropy of most protein molecules, the orienting effect is unimportant for smaller aggregates, even those much larger than a critical nucleus. However, during sedimentation crystals grow larger and are more likely to become aligned. The degree of orientation thus depends on crystal growth rate and container geometry, in addition to magnetic field strength, as we have confirmed experimentally.
KW - Lysozyme
KW - Magnetic field
KW - Magnetic orientation
KW - Protein crystallization
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U2 - 10.1016/S0022-0248(98)00866-5
DO - 10.1016/S0022-0248(98)00866-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0033513652
VL - 196
SP - 319
EP - 324
JO - Journal of Crystal Growth
JF - Journal of Crystal Growth
SN - 0022-0248
IS - 2-4
ER -