A Brief History of Macromolecular Crystallography, Illustrated by a Family Tree and Its Nobel Fruits Mariusz Jaskolski1, Zbigniew Dauter2 and Alexander Wlodawer3
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REVIEW ARTICLE A brief history of macromolecular crystallography, illustrated by a family tree and its Nobel fruits Mariusz Jaskolski1, Zbigniew Dauter2 and Alexander Wlodawer3 1 Department of Crystallography, Faculty of Chemistry, A. Mickiewicz University and Center for Biocrystallographic Research, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan, Poland 2 Synchrotron Radiation Research Section, Macromolecular Crystallography Laboratory, NCI, Argonne National Laboratory, IL, USA 3 Protein Structure Section, Macromolecular Crystallography Laboratory, NCI at Frederick, MD, USA This review is dedicated to David Davies, David Eisenberg, Keith Hodgson, Zofia Kosturkiewicz, Ivar Olovsson and Michael Woolfson, our teachers and mentors, to whom we owe our own connection with the roots of crystallography. Keywords As a contribution to the celebration of the year 2014, declared by the Uni- history of crystallography; macromolecular ted Nations to be ‘The International Year of Crystallography’, the FEBS crystallography; nobel prizes; structural Journal is dedicating this issue to papers showcasing the intimate union biology; structural crystallography between macromolecular crystallography and structural biology, both in Correspondence historical perspective and in current research. Instead of a formal editorial A. Wlodawer, Macromolecular piece, by way of introduction, this review discusses the most important, Crystallography Laboratory, NCI at often iconic, achievements of crystallographers that led to major advances Frederick, MD, USA in our understanding of the structure and function of biological macromol- Fax: 1-301-6322 ecules. We identified at least 42 scientists who received Nobel Prizes in Tel: 1-301-846-5036 Physics, Chemistry or Medicine for their contributions that included the E-mail: [email protected] use of X-rays or neutrons and crystallography, including 24 who made (Received 19 February 2014, revised 21 seminal discoveries in macromolecular sciences. Our spotlight is mostly, March 2014, accepted 25 March 2014) but not only, on the recipients of this most prestigious scientific honor, pre- sented in approximately chronological order. As a summary of the review, doi:10.1111/febs.12796 we attempt to construct a genealogy tree of the principal lineages of pro- tein crystallography, leading from the founding members to the present generation. Early days of crystallography Humans have been fascinated by crystals for millennia, 1923) discovered X-rays in 1895 in Germany (pub- although the understanding of their nature and utiliza- lished for the English-speaking audience a year later) tion of their properties for endeavors other than creat- [1,2], another 17 years had to pass before Max von ing expensive jewelry had to wait until the 20th Laue (1879–1960), suspecting that the wavelength of Century. Two dates have to be particularly kept in X-rays might be comparable with the interatomic dis- mind. Although Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen€ (1845– tances, shone them, with the help of two assistants, on Abbreviations FEL, free electron laser; GPCR, G-protein-coupled receptor; LMB, Laboratory of Molecular Biology; MR, molecular replacement; PDB, Protein Data Bank; PSRC, photosynthetic reaction center; SG, structural genomics; TBSV, tomato bushy stunt virus; TMV, tobacco mosaic virus. FEBS Journal 281 (2014) 3985–4009 Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. 3985 A brief history of macromolecular crystallography M. Jaskolski et al. a blue crystal of copper sulfate pentahydrate tein for crystallization, and a volume containing 600 (CuSO4Á5H2O) [3]. Although Laue was able to provide microscopic photographs of hemoglobin crystals from a physical explanation of the observed diffraction approximately 200 organisms was published by Reic- images, the work of the father-and-son team of Sir hert and Brown in 1909 [13]. However, it took William Henry Bragg (1862–1942) and Sir William another 50 years of titanic effort before the first Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971) in England was crucial three-dimensional structure of the hemoglobin mole- for the introduction of diffraction as a tool for crystal cule could finally meet the human eye [14]. Crystalli- structure investigation. It was the younger Bragg who zation of the first enzyme (urease) was reported by soon developed an elegant mathematical explanation James Sumner (1887–1955) in 1926 [15]. This break- of the images generated by Laue, in the form of the through was the basis for the award of the 1946 famous Bragg’s Law, nk = 2dsinh, describing the rela- Nobel Prize in Chemistry that went to Sumner, as tionship between the angles of diffraction (h), the well as John Northrop (1891–1987) and Wendell Stan- wavelength of the X-rays (k) and the interplanar spac- ley (1904–1971). That prize was awarded essentially ings (d) in the crystal lattice [4]. The early papers of for the crystallization of pure proteins and viruses, the Braggs have withstood the test of time and their the achievements proving that ‘living molecules’ could interpretation is still used more than a century later be crystallized or purified and that they did not [5–8]. W. H. Bragg went on to construct the first require any special ‘elan vital’. X-ray spectrometer [6] and, of course, one of the first Recording X-ray diffraction images of macromolec- crystal structures determined by the Braggs (next to ular crystals turned out to be quite challenging because rock salt) was that of diamond, the perennial favorite crystals mounted on glass fibers and exposed to air, as crystal of the wealthier part of the human race [9]. is customary for crystals of small molecules, would The monumental importance of the discoveries of very quickly deteriorate, losing their crystallinity and Laue and the Braggs was immediately recognized, diffraction. The first such pictures of protein crystals leading to the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to taken by J. Desmond Bernal (1901–1971; affection- Laue in 1914, and to both Braggs in 1915. Inciden- ately called ‘Sage’) were indeed of poor quality but, tally, W. L. Bragg was, at the age of 25 years, the together with his student Dorothy Crowfoot (later youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize, a feat that Hodgkin; 1910–1994), they soon realized that crystals is unlikely to be overshadowed any time soon. of biological macromolecules must be highly hydrated The Nobel Prizes awarded to Laue and the Braggs and that sealing them in capillaries with a drop of open a long list of this (Table 1) and other major their mother liquor would efficiently protect them honors given to crystallographers during the last from desiccation. The first reported diffraction was 100 years. In this review, we primarily concentrate on from a crystals of pepsin [16], grown in the laboratory the achievements of the Nobel Prize winners, with less of Theodor Svedberg in Uppsala by John Philpot, emphasis on other important accomplishments, espe- who delivered them to Bernal in Cambridge. Those cially the more recent ones. It is clear that many more hexagonal crystals had the unit cell lengths reported as results of macromolecular crystallographers deserve a = 67 A and c = 154 A (with an expected error of mention, although this could not be accomplished in a 5%), the latter one being too long for accurate mea- brief review. The subject of the history of crystallogra- surements with the equipment available at that time. phy has been covered in a recent book by Authier [10], Thus, the structure of this particular form of pepsin which we strongly recommend to those interested in was not determined until 1990 (incidentally, by Hodg- learning more details of this fascinating field. kin’s former student, Sir Tom Blundell) [17], long after the structure of the protein in the simpler monoclinic Crystallization of macromolecules crystal form had been published [18]. It turned out that the real length of the c axis was 290.1 A, approxi- The subject of crystallization of proteins has been mately twice as long as originally reported, making the very recently discussed in a review in this journal [11] determination of this structure even more challenging. and thus is covered here only very briefly. It is not Despite all the problems, Bernal noted [19] that: ‘... really possible to trace the first mention of crystals of the [X-ray] pictures yielded by protein crystals were of macromolecules such as proteins, although the exceptional perfection. They showed large unit cells description of the serendipitously obtained ‘blood with great wealth of reflections [...] found even at crystals’ of earthworm hemoglobin can be found in a comparatively high angles corresponding to such low book published as early as 1840 [12]. Hemoglobin spacings as 2 A. This indicated that not only were the from various sources continued to be the favorite pro- molecules of the proteins substantially identical in 3986 FEBS Journal 281 (2014) 3985–4009 Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. M. Jaskolski et al. A brief history of macromolecular crystallography Table 1. Nobel Prizes related to crystallography with prize motivations as provided by the Nobel Committee. The recipients of prizes related to macromolecular crystallography are shown in bold. Nationalities are listed as shown on the Nobel Foundation web page, indicating the country where the award-winning work was primarily done. Recipient Year Discipline Nationality Awarded Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen€ 1901 Physics