I had some luck once cutting the crystal out of skin with a razorblade.
When the skin is extremely sticky, you tend to get your crystal wrapped
up in it (which may be OK - you just get more background scatter) and
carefully cutting skin on all four sides may be a better option.
Wang, Yeming (NIH/NIEHS) [F] wrote:
> Dear everyone,
>
> I am working on crystallization of a protein/RNA complex recently. The crystals were initially grown from BICINE(9.0) 0.1M, 1,4-Dioxane 2%(v/v) , PEG 20,000 10%(w/v), at 10mg/ml. I noticed that there was a membrane formed on the surface of the hanging droplets. This membrane seems very sticky. Consequently, almost all of the crystals stick to this membrane and can't be seperated for data collection. Sitting drops were also tried but crystals stick to the bottom of the sitting well. Different buffer(Tris, CHES), different PEG(PEG 8000, PEG3350, from 10%-1%) and different protein concentration (10-3mg/ml) were also tried, but the sticky membrane was still there. Does anyone have some experience solving this problem? Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!
>
> Yeming
> ---------------------
> Yeming Wang, Ph.D.
> Laboratory of Structural Biology: Macromolecular Structure Group
> National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
> National Institute of Health
> Mailing Address: Street Address:
> NIEHS, MD F3-05 NIEHS, Building 101, Room F363
> P.O. BOX 12233 111 T.W. Alexander Drive
> RTP, NC 27709 RTP, NC 27709
> Tel (o): 919-316-4634
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
--
Edwin Pozharski, PhD, Assistant Professor
University of Maryland, Baltimore
----------------------------------------------
When the Way is forgotten duty and justice appear;
Then knowledge and wisdom are born along with hypocrisy.
When harmonious relationships dissolve then respect and devotion arise;
When a nation falls to chaos then loyalty and patriotism are born.
------------------------------ / Lao Tse /
|