Protein Crystallization by Anodic Porous Alumina (APA) Template: The Example of Hen Egg White Lysozyme (HEWL)

Abstract

In this communication, we report anodic porous alumina (APA) template induced crystallization. The APA nanotemplate was prepared on the glass substrate for the hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) crystal growth. The changes in the lysozyme crystals morphology, namely in the a/c axis ratio, were observed in the crystal grown by APA nanotemplate, but not in the crystal obtained with classical hanging drop vapor diffusion method, under the same experimental conditions. The comparison of the diffraction data of the two crystals as well as bioinformatics and data mining approaches and molecular dynamics simulations suggest a possible explanation of the nanotemplate crystallization phenomenon and shed light on the APA-induced nanocrystallography.

Self-ordered Porous Alumina Fabricated via Phosphonic Acid Anodizing

“…At the end of the 1990s, the self-ordering behavior of porous alumina was reported via anodizing under optimal electrochemical conditions, including the anodizing voltage, temperature, and solution concentration, due to the rearrangement of the porous alumina during long-term anodizing [5][6][7][8]. High-aspect-ratio and highly ordered porous alumina with an ideal honeycomb structure can be easily fabricated via self-ordered anodizing and has been widely used by many researchers as a template and membrane for various nanotechnologies [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

Protein Confinement in the Anodic Porous Alumina Microarray

“…In recent years, APA has attracted significant interest for sensor [1][2], photonic devices [3] and protein crystals growth [4,5] due to the specific characteristics of its ordered multi-cavities array [6]. The fast development of the proteomic field and the complexity proteinprotein and proteins-small molecules interaction require new advanced protein arrays in micro and nanoscale dimension.…”