![]() ![]() Instead, Zhang and coworkers wanted the crystal to expand but remain intact in water. In fact, the close contact interactions that stabilize the crystal are easily weakened when pure water is introduced into the pores, washing out calcium ions and dissolving the crystal. Indicated by the arrow in Figure 2C, the pores between ferritin molecules are approximately 6 nanometers wide, large enough to allow water, salt solutions, and other liquids to soak into the ferritin crystal. Because of the particular packing of the ferritin molecules caused by these interactions, a ferritin crystal is quite porous. You can see in Figure 2B that this lattice is held together by neighboring ferritins strongly interacting with calcium ions at the point where they come closest together. As shown in Figure 2A, a given ferritin molecule is in direct contact with six other ferritin molecules, forming a lattice similar to table salt. ![]() Ferritin is a hollow, spherical protein that is slightly negatively charged. Images adapted from Zhang and coworkers’ original paper.Īs mentioned earlier, biomolecules are also capable of forming crystals under right conditions. (C) A cutaway of a ferritin crystal demonstrating the porosity of the crystal. (B) A schematic of the close contact interactions between neighboring ferritin molecules, mediated by calcium (Ca 2+). Each sphere is a single ferritin molecule. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |