Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic investigations on a βγ-crystallin domain of absent in melanoma 1 (AIM1), a protein from Homo sapiens

AIM1g1 is a single βγ-crystallin domain from the protein absent in melanoma 1 (AIM1), which appears to play a role in the suppression of melanomas. This domain is known to bind calcium and its structure would help in identifying calcium-coordinating sites in vertebrate crystallins, which have hitherto been believed to have lost this ability during evolution. Crystallization of this domain was performed by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. Crystals diffracted to a maximum resolution of 1.86 Å and were found to belong to space group P6₁ or P6₅, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 54.98, c = 59.73 Å. Solvent-content analysis indicated the presence of one monomer per asymmetric unit.