Acta Crystallographica Section D

Biological Crystallography

Volume 58, Part 9 (September 2002)

crystallization papers

Acta Cryst. (2002). D58, 1482-1483 [ doi:10.1107/S0907444902011046 ]

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of a D-aminoacylase from Alcaligenes faecalis DA1

C.-S. Hsu, S.-J. Chen, Y.-C. Tsai, T.-W. Lin, S.-H. Liaw and A. H.-J. Wang

Abstract: D-Aminoacylases catalyze the hydrolysis of N-acyl-D-amino acids into D-amino acids with the aid of zinc ions. The first D-aminoacylase crystal from Alcaligenes faecalis has been obtained in hanging drops at pH 5.6 by the vapour-diffusion method using 30% polyethylene glycol 4000 as precipitant. It belongs to space group P2₁2₁2₁, with unit-cell parameters a = 60.2, b = 76.6, c = 135.3 Å. Reflections to 1.2 Å resolution are observable. An initial atomic model with 472 residues has been built based on SeMet SAD data at 1.8 Å resolution. Unexpectedly, the structure revealed a novel metal centre in the amidohydrolase superfamily.

Keywords: D-aminoacylase.