Lomakin Aleksey, Asherie Neer, Benedek George B
Department of Physics, Center for Materials Science and Engineering and Material Processing Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Sep 2;100(18):10254-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1334069100. Epub 2003 Aug 18.
It is generally assumed that crystallization begins with a small, crystalline nucleus. For proteins this paradigm may not be valid. Our numerical simulations show that under conditions typically used to produce protein crystals, small clusters of model proteins (particles with short-range, attractive interactions) cannot maintain a crystalline structure. Protein crystal nucleation is therefore an indirect, two-step process. A nucleus first forms and grows as a disordered, liquid-like aggregate. Once the aggregate grows beyond a critical size (about a few hundred particles) crystal nucleation becomes possible.
通常认为结晶始于一个小的晶核。对于蛋白质来说，这种模式可能并不适用。我们的数值模拟表明，在通常用于产生蛋白质晶体的条件下，模型蛋白质的小聚集体（具有短程吸引相互作用的粒子）无法维持晶体结构。因此，蛋白质晶体成核是一个间接的两步过程。首先形成一个核，并作为无序的、类似液体的聚集体生长。一旦聚集体生长超过临界尺寸（约几百个粒子），晶体成核就变得可能。
