Engineering of an in-cell protein crystal for fastening a metastable conformation of a target miniprotein

Protein crystals can be utilized as porous scaffolds to capture exogenous molecules. Immobilization of target proteins using protein crystals is expected to facilitate X-ray structure analysis of proteins that are difficult to be crystallized. One of the advantages of scaffold-assisted structure determination is the analysis of metastable structures that are not observed in solution. However, efforts to fix target proteins within the pores of scaffold protein crystals have been limited due to the lack of strategies to control protein-protein interactions formed in the crystals. In this study, we analyze the metastable structure of the miniprotein, CLN025, which forms a β-hairpin structure in solution, using a polyhedra crystal (PhC), an in-cell protein crystal. CLN025 is successfully fixed within the PhC scaffold by replacing the original loop region. X-ray crystal structure analysis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation reveal that CLN025 is fixed as a helical structure in a metastable state by non-covalent interactions in the scaffold crystal. These results indicate that modulation of intermolecular interactions can trap various protein conformations in the engineered PhC and provides a new strategy for scaffold-assisted structure determination.

A cinnamaldehyde Schiff base of S-(4-methyl-benz-yl) di-thio-carbazate: crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface analysis and computational study

The title di-thio-carbazate ester (I), C18H18N2S2 [systematic name: (E)-4-methyl-benzyl 2-[(E)-3-phenyl-allyl-idene]hydrazinecarbodi-thio-ate, comprises an almost planar central CN2S2 residue [r.m.s. deviation = 0.0131 Å]. The methyl-ene(tolyl-4) group forms a dihedral angle of 72.25 (4)° with the best plane through the remaining non-hydrogen atoms [r.m.s. deviation = 0.0586 Å] so the mol-ecule approximates mirror symmetry with the 4-tolyl group bis-ected by the plane. The configuration about both double bonds in the N-N=C-C=C chain is E; the chain has an all trans conformation. In the crystal, eight-membered centrosymmetric thio-amide synthons, {⋯HNCS}2, are formed via N-H⋯S(thione) hydrogen bonds. Connections between the dimers via C-H⋯π inter-actions lead to a three-dimensional architecture. A Hirshfeld surface analysis shows that (I) possesses an inter-action profile similar to that of a closely related analogue with an S-bound benzyl substituent, (II). Computational chemistry indicates the dimeric species of (II) connected via N-H⋯S hydrogen bonds is about 0.94 kcal mol-1 more stable than that in (I).

Robustness of a thioamide {⋯H–N–CS}2 synthon: synthesis and the effect of substituents on the formation of layered to cage-like supramolecular networks in coumarin–thiosemicarbazone hybrids

The study has been carried out to highlight the potential of thiosemicarbazones in crystal engineering.

Robustness of thioamide dimer synthon, carbon bonding and thioamide–thioamide stacking in ferrocene-based thiosemicarbazones

The role of thioureas in crystal engineering as robust supramolecular synthons is now recognized, but their analogs, namely thiosemicarbazones/N-iminothioureas, have not received the attention they deserve.