The influence of precipitant concentration on macromolecular crystal growth mechanisms

Atomic force microscopy was applied to investigate the influence of protein and precipitant (sodium-potassium tartrate) concentration on thaumatin crystal growth mechanisms. At constant protein concentration, a decrease of salt concentration from 0.8 to 0.085 M caused a transition of the crystal growth mechanism from two-dimensional nucleation to dislocation growth. At different, fixed concentrations of salt, the protein concentration, which...