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crystallization communications
The proteins in the fatty-acid synthesis pathway in bacteria have significant potential as targets for the development of antibacterial agents. An essential elongation step in fatty-acid synthesis is performed by β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein synthase I (FabB). The organism Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) causes a destructive bacterial blight disease of rice. The XoFabB protein from Xoo was expressed, purified and crystallized for the three-dimensional structure determination that is essential for the development of specific inhibitors of the enzyme. An XoFabB crystal diffracted to 3.0 Å resolution and belonged to the tetragonal space group P41, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 82.2, c = 233.2 Å. Assuming that the crystallographic structure contains four molecules in the asymmetric unit, the corresponding VM would be 2.18 Å3 Da−1 and the solvent content would be 43.5%. The initial structure was determined by the MOLREP program with an R factor of 44.0% and does contain four monomers in the asymmetric unit.