The use of single-wavelength anomalous scattering to solve the crystal structure of a gramicidin A/caesium chloride complex.

Single-wavelength Cu K alpha anomalous scattering has been used to determine the structure of a crystalline complex of gramicidin A and caesium chloride. The asymmetric unit in these crystals, with space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) and a = 32.118 (6), b = 52.103 (12), c = 31.174 (7) A, contains four independent monomers (two dimers) of the pentadecapeptide. This structure falls in an intermediate size range for which direct methods and multiple isomorphous replacement are generally not successful for obtaining phase information. However, using the Bijvoet differences and the partial structure of the caesium atoms which have been incorporated in the crystals, it has been possible to obtain information on this crystal form. Because the caesium atoms dominate the scattering of these crystals, inclusion of the Friedel mate information in the restrained least-squares refinement has been essential. These studies extend the utility of single-wavelength anomalous-scattering phase determination to a macromolecular structure in which the partial structure of the anomalous scatterer is large.