Membrane's Eleven: heavy-atom derivatives of membrane-protein crystals.

A database has been assembled of heavy-atom derivatives used in the structure determination of membrane proteins. The database can serve as a guide to the design of experiments in the search for heavy-atom derivatives of new membrane-protein crystals. The database pinpoints organomercurials, platinum(II) and trimethyllead compounds as being particularly useful. On the other hand, lanthanide and uranyl compounds are poorly represented, which may be a consequence of these compounds having aggressive effects in crystal-soaking procedures. Furthermore, the database highlights the variety of methods applied in the preparation of heavy-atom-derivatized crystals and in phasing. Cocrystallization can be further exploited. Phases have predominantly been obtained by SIRAS/MIRAS methods rather than SAD/MAD in recent structure determinations.