BAR STRUCTURE · Microcrystallography of stabilized adrenergic receptors

Nowadays microfocus beamlines at intense and brilliant synchrotron radiation sources allow studies of samples with low X-ray scattering power to be curried out with new micro-methods. Structural information of excellent quality can be produced for proteins, which crystallize yielding only tiny crystals. The structure of recombinant rhodopsin obtained recently in host laboratory is an example of successful microcrystallography application. Several other membrane proteins from the GPCR family were studied in host laboratory for many years among them adrenergic receptors. Recently microcrystals of beta-adrenergic receptor were obtained in host laboratory and structure solution efforts were initiated. The corresponding strategy for structure solution of beta-adrenergic receptor is proposed here. New approaches to data collection from microcrystals including scanning microdiffraction and random data collection will be developed for successful structure determination. Application of micron and sub-micron beams for data collection will be assessed. Additionally, development of the software dedicated for reduction of data from microcrystals is suggested. Efforts in advancing microcrystallography will result in obtaining a high-resolution structure of beta-adrenergic receptor, which will help to rational drug design and will give new insights on GPCR signalling mechanism.