Crystals of the hydrogenase maturation factor HypF N-terminal domain grown in microgravity, display improved internal order.

Synthesis of the active [Ni–Fe]-hydrogenase in prokaryotes requires a series of ancillary maturation factors. Among them, the HypF maturation factor is a multidomain 82 kDa protein, whose N-terminal domain displays sequence and structural similarities to acylphosphatases. Acylphosphatases are small enzymes that are able to catalyze carboxyl-phosphate bond hydrolysis in acylphosphates, as well as in nucleoside di- and tri-phosphates and in arylphosphates. Here, we present a crystallographic comparison between microgravity and earth-grown crystals of the HypF N-terminal domain. Both crystals were of excellent quality, thereby allowing us to collect very high resolution datasets. A detailed analysis of data collection and refinement statistics, together with an analysis of the diffraction pattern showed that microgravity would appear to further improve the internal order of crystals.