Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of an acylphosphatase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii

Acylphosphatases catalyse the hydrolysis of the carboxyl phosphate bond in metabolites such as acetyl phosphate, 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate, succinoyl phosphate and carbamoyl phosphate. In this study, acylphosphatase ( 91 residues) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii has been cloned, overexpressed, purified and crystallized using the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion method using sodium formate as a precipitant at 289 K. The crystals belong to space group P3(2)21, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 85.65, c = 75.51 Angstrom. The asymmetric unit contains two molecules of acylphosphatase, with a corresponding crystal volume per protein weight of 3.9 Angstrom Da(-1) and a solvent content of 68.6%. A data set diffracting to 1.6 Angstrom resolution was collected from a single crystal at 100 K.