Racemic DNA Crystallography

Racemic DNA crystallography.

Racemates increase the chances of crystallization by allowing molecular contacts to be formed in a greater number of ways. With the advent of protein synthesis, the production of protein racemates and racemic-protein crystallography are now possible. Curiously, racemic DNA crystallography had not been investigated despite the commercial availability of L- and D-deoxyribo-oligonucleotides. Here,...

Structure elucidation of the Pribnow box consensus promoter sequence by racemic DNA crystallography

It has previously been shown that the use of racemic mixtures of naturally chiral macromolecules such as protein and DNA can significantly aid the crystallogenesis process, thereby addressing one of the major bottlenecks to structure determination by X-ray crystallographic methods-that of crystal growth. Although previous studies have provided convincing evidence of the applicability of the rac...

DNA Crystallography

A functional role of Rv1738 in Mycobacterium tuberculosis persistence suggested by racemic protein crystallography.

Protein 3D structure can be a powerful predictor of function, but it often faces a critical roadblock at the crystallization step. Rv1738, a protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is strongly implicated in the onset of nonreplicating persistence, and thereby latent tuberculosis, resisted extensive attempts at crystallization. Chemical synthesis of the L- and D-enantiomeric forms of Rv1738...

Racemic drugs: racemic mixture, racemic compound, or pseudoracemate?

Stereochemistry can be said to have begun in 1848 when Pasteur observed that crystals of sodium ammonium tartrate obtained by slow recrystallisation at room temperature were of two mirror image crystallographic forms. He was able to pick out these two forms by hand and show that solutions of equal concentration caused an equal and opposite rotation of plane polarised light. The rotation disappe...