An investigation on the effect of surface roughness of crystallization plate on protein crystallization

Surface treatment by oxidizing the crystallization plates can significantly promote protein crystallization and requires no change to routine screening protocols; therefore, it is potentially useful for practical protein crystallization screening. However, experiments have shown that the amount of oxidants and the treatment process need to be optimized to achieve effective results. Searching for the suitable amount of oxidants, temperature and processing time for surface treatment of the plate will increase the workload and decrease the efficiency of the screening process. To solve this problem, a series of trials to determine suitable surface treatment conditions were conducted. Based on these experiments, not only was the most suitable processing condition for the optimal protein crystallization screening hits discovered but also the relationship between the treatment process and the protein crystallization screening hits was explored. With these results, the surface treatment of protein crystallization plates became easier and more effective, allowing the oxidizing surface treatment method to be applied on plates for use in routine protein crystallization screening.