Expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana Deg8

Arabidopsis thaliana Deg8, an ATP-independent serine endopeptidase, is involved in the repair of photosystem II (PSII), specifically the degradation of the photo-damaged PSII reaction centre D1 protein. To understand the molecular mechanism underlying the participation of Deg8 in the degradation of the photo-damaged D1 protein, the structure of Deg8 is needed. Until recently, however, no structure of Deg8 had been solved. In this study, Deg8 from A. thaliana was cloned, overexpressed and purified in Escherichia coli. Crystallization was performed at 277 K using tribasic sodium citrate as the precipitant and the crystals diffracted to 2.0 Å resolution, belonging to space group C2 with unit-cell parameters a = 129.5, b = 124.2, c = 93.3 Å, α = γ = 90, β = 132.4°. Assuming one trimer in the asymmetric unit, the Matthews coefficient and the solvent content were calculated to be 2.35 ų Da⁻¹ and 47.6%, respectively.