Biocatalytic systems

Crystal growth, structure determination and structure analysis of enzymes, especially those of the chorismate pathway and hyperthermophiles.

Protein crystallography

Current crystal structure projects: AF1665 dehydrogenase and dehydroquinase from Archaeoglobus fulgidus, chorismate lyase from E. coli (pdb codes 1fw9, 1g1b, 1g81, 1jd3)  mutants and complexes.  Completed projects: biosynthetic threonine deaminase from E. coli (1tdj.pdb), subtilisin BPN´ from Bacillus amyloliquifaciens (1dui, 1sua, 1sub, 1suc, 1sud, 1sue, 1sup), subtilisin prosegment (1spb), and an IgG-binding domain of protein G from Streptococcus (1pga, 1pgb).  Related projects are ongoing in the areas of crystal growth and phasing methods.

Biomolecular lattices

These studies are directed toward the goal of a molecular lattice that may be useful for various purposes, such as a bioreactor scaffold, a host lattice for diffraction analysis of attached proteins, or information processing. Current efforts employ protein and DNA as the construction materials. The short term goal is to gain structural data on DNA branches and small multiply-connected constructs. These constructs could then be used as building blocks for assembly of higher-order structures.

Publications

• "Crystal structure of C73G putidaredoxin from Pseudomonas putida", N Smith, M Mayhew, H Kelly, H Robinson, A Heroux, MJ Holden, VL Vilker, and DT Gallagher, Acta Crystallogr. D, submitted (2003).

• "Local and global control mechanisms in allosteric threonine deaminase", DT Gallagher, D Chinchilla, H Lau, and E Eisenstein, Methods in Enzymology, in press (2004).

• "Crystallization and phasing of alanine dehydrogenase from Archaeoglobus fulgidus", N Smith, M Mayhew, H Robinson, A Heroux, D Charlton, MJ Holden,  MP Mayhew, and DT Gallagher,  Acta Crystallogr. D59, 2328-31 (2003).

• "X-ray topography of microgravity-grown ribonuclease S crystals", DT Gallagher, C Stover, D Charlton, L Arnowitz, and DR Black,  J. Crystal Growth 255, 403-413 (2003).