Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of a C-terminal fragment of FlgJ, a putative flagellar rod cap protein from Salmonella

Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2009 Jan 1;65(Pt 1):17-20. doi: 10.1107/S1744309108038207. Epub 2008 Dec 25.

Abstract

The formation of the bacterial flagellar axial structure, including the filament, the hook and the rod, requires the attachment of a cap complex to the distal end of the growing structure. Because the rod penetrates the peptidoglycan (PG) layer, the rod cap complex is thought to have PG-hydrolyzing activity. FlgJ is a putative rod cap protein whose C-terminal region shows sequence similarity to known muramidases. In this study, FlgJ(120-316), a C-terminal fragment of FlgJ which contains the muramidase region, was overproduced, purified and crystallized. Crystals were obtained by the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion technique using PEG 3350 as a crystallizing agent and belonged to the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 38.8, b = 43.9, c = 108.5 A. Anomalous difference Patterson maps calculated from the diffraction data set of a selenomethionine-labelled crystal showed significant peaks in the Harker sections, indicating that the data were suitable for structure determination.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Crystallization
  • Crystallography, X-Ray / methods
  • Flagella / metabolism
  • Hydrolysis
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Molecular Structure
  • Muramidase / chemistry*
  • Muramidase / physiology
  • Peptidoglycan / chemistry
  • Polyethylene Glycols / chemistry
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Salmonella / metabolism*
  • Urea / chemistry
  • X-Rays

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Peptidoglycan
  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • Urea
  • Muramidase