Abstract
The catalytic mechanism of family GH19 chitinases is not well understood owing to insufficient information regarding the three-dimensional structures of enzyme-substrate complexes. Here, the crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of a selenomethionine-labelled active-site mutant of `loopless' family GH19 chitinase from the moss Bryum coronatum in complex with chitotetraose, (GlcNAc)4, are reported. The crystals were grown using the vapour-diffusion method. They diffracted to 1.58 Å resolution using synchrotron radiation at the Photon Factory. The crystals belonged to the monoclinic space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 74.5, b = 58.4, c = 48.1 Å, β = 115.6°. The asymmetric unit of the crystals is expected to contain one protein molecule, with a Matthews coefficient of 2.08 Å(3) Da(-1) and a solvent content of 41%.