IUL Biotechnology Series

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This book is a basic, example-based laboratory manual for scientists and students who crystallize membrane proteins. The book could be useful for wide audience. Using the book, beginners and students find the practical direction how to start; intermediates can improve their techniques; experts can find advisable hints for creating new methods. The book includes four parts. The first part is an introduction in membrane protein chemistry. The second part covers the principles and technique in membrain protein crystallization. The third part displays the examples of successful crystallization of membrane proteins. It conteins three sections: Crystallization of Photosystem I, Respiratory Complexes, and Channel and Receptor. The fourth part is about crystallization informatics of membrane proteins.

     Written by the best experts in membrane protein crystallization from different countries.

      Edited by So Iwata, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.

Reviews

Determination of the structure of membrane proteins remains a major challenge in structural biology. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is to produce well-ordered 3D crystals of membrane proteins that are suitable for X-ray crystallography. This excellent book, edited by So Iwata, provides a case-by-case guide of successful strategies that have been used to tackle this problem. The text provides the theory of how membrane proteins crystallize and then illustrates this with real examples. It will become a ‘must read’, for any scientists wishing to move into this exciting research area and give them the confidence to succeed!

Reviewer: H. Ronald Kaback, M.D., Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

As  a scientist working in the field of membranes and membrane proteins who has tried to crystallize a membrane transport protein for over a decade, I may be somewhat prejudiced. However, I feel that membrane protein structure/function is the field of the future in biochemistry and physiology. The number of high-resolution structures of membrane proteins currently available is infinitesimal relative to the number of structures available for soluble proteins, yet the two most widely sold pharmaceutical agents in the world are targeted to membrane proteins (Prozac and Imiprazole), and membrane proteins play important roles in the pathophysiology of numerous human diseases (e. g., Cystic Fibrosis). Although the number of high-resolution membrane protein structures has begun to increase within the past few years, I know of no treatise that deals comprehensively with the practical problems inherent in crystallization of this class of protein. 

     Iwata’s book represents just such a treatise. Parts I and II deal with general principles and techniques in membrane protein crystallization in a clear and concise fashion, with an excellent general introduction followed by chapters covering the use of detergents, crystallization in lipidic cubic phases, the use and generation of antibody fragments, porin as a model and crystallization of membrane proteins in oils. Part III focuses on specific examples of membrane proteins whose structures have been solved. The examples cover the gamut of membrane proteins from those involved in photosynthesis to respiratory complexes to channels, receptors and the outer membrane protein phospholipase A. In each case, the chapters are written in a lucid and practically oriented fashion by the very scientists who solved the structures. Finally, in Part IV, Iwata provides a particularly useful practical guide to begin crystallization of a-helical membrane proteins.

     This is an superb, timely book that will be of great interest and practical use to both students and practitioners of membrane protein crystallization.