TY - JOUR
T1 - In situ observation of elementary growth steps on the surface of protein crystals by laser confocal microscopy
AU - Sazaki, Gen
AU - Matsui, Takuro
AU - Tsukamoto, Katsuo
AU - Usami, Noritaka
AU - Ujihara, Toru
AU - Fujiwara, Kozo
AU - Nakajima, Kazuo
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Olympus Optical Co. Ltd. for the loan of a laser confocal microscope and for their technical help. Combination of LCM and DIM was proposed by Y. Saito of Olympus Optical Co. Ltd. The authors are grateful for valuable discussions with Prof. H. Komatsu of Iwate Prefectural University and Prof. T. Nakada of Ritsumeikan University. The authors wish to express gratitude for the English correction by Dr. S.D. Durbin of RightNow Technologies. One of the authors (G.S.) also wishes to acknowledge the partial support by a fund from The Inamori Foundation.
PY - 2004/2/15
Y1 - 2004/2/15
N2 - Surface micro-topography of the {110} faces of tetragonal lysozyme crystals was observed in situ by laser confocal microscopy (LCM) combined with differential interference contrast microscopy (DIM). We could observe two-dimensional (2D) nucleation and subsequent growth of the 2D islands in real time. When steps of neighboring 2D islands coalesced, the contrast of the steps disappeared completely and the 2D islands merged smoothly. This result proved that the height of the steps observed by LCM combined with DIM was always the same and these steps were elementary ones (5.6nm high). The combination of LCM and DIM was necessary to observe elementary steps with sufficient contrast. The elementary steps on a spiral growth hillock could also be observed using the LCM-DIM system, although their contrast was much smaller than that of the 2D islands because of much smaller inter-step distance.
AB - Surface micro-topography of the {110} faces of tetragonal lysozyme crystals was observed in situ by laser confocal microscopy (LCM) combined with differential interference contrast microscopy (DIM). We could observe two-dimensional (2D) nucleation and subsequent growth of the 2D islands in real time. When steps of neighboring 2D islands coalesced, the contrast of the steps disappeared completely and the 2D islands merged smoothly. This result proved that the height of the steps observed by LCM combined with DIM was always the same and these steps were elementary ones (5.6nm high). The combination of LCM and DIM was necessary to observe elementary steps with sufficient contrast. The elementary steps on a spiral growth hillock could also be observed using the LCM-DIM system, although their contrast was much smaller than that of the 2D islands because of much smaller inter-step distance.
KW - A1. Biocrystallization
KW - A1. Elementary step
KW - A1. Laser confocal microscopy
KW - A1. Optical microscopy
KW - B1. Lysozyme
KW - B1. Proteins
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2003.10.049
DO - 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2003.10.049
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0842329936
SN - 0022-0248
VL - 262
SP - 536
EP - 542
JO - Journal of Crystal Growth
JF - Journal of Crystal Growth
IS - 1-4
ER -