In situ measurement and dynamic control of the evaporation rate in vapor diffusion crystallization of proteins

A special device with a weight-sensitive facility was designed for monitoring and controlling the water evaporation in vapor diffusion protein crystallization. The device made it possible to measure the weight of the drop in real time while the crystallization experiment was going on normally. The precise water equilibration curves under different crystallization conditions could be obtained automatically. By monitoring and controlling the evaporation rate, the crystallization of hen egg-white lysozyme and trichosanthin, a plant protein from Chinese herb, was optimized by regulating the reservoir solution dynamically. The experimental results of these two proteins indicate both the feasibility of the device and the usefulness of dynamic control technique. Compared with traditional crystallization experiments, dynamically controlled crystallization can reduce the number of nuclei, increase the crystal size and save experimental time effectively. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.