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Promotion of protein crystal growth by actively switching crystal growth mode via femtosecond laser ablation

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 723–726 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Large single crystals with desirable shapes are essential for various scientific and industrial fields, such as X-ray/neutron crystallography and crystalline devices. However, in the case of proteins the production of such crystals is particularly challenging, despite the efforts devoted to optimization of the environmental, chemical and physical parameters. Here we report an innovative approach for promoting the growth of protein crystals by directly modifying the local crystal structure via femtosecond laser ablation. We demonstrate that protein crystals with surfaces that are locally etched (several micrometers in diameter) by femtosecond laser ablation show enhanced growth rates without losing crystal quality. Optical phase-sensitive microscopy and X-ray topography imaging techniques reveal that the local etching induces spiral growth, which is energetically advantageous compared with the spontaneous two-dimensional nucleation growth mode. These findings prove that femtosecond laser ablation can actively switch the crystal growth mode, offering flexible control over the size and shape of protein crystals.

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Figure 1: Promotion of crystal growth by femtosecond laser ablation.
Figure 2: Spiral growth from the ablated crystal surface.
Figure 3: Mechanism of crystal growth promotion by laser ablation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Sazaki, S. Nakayama and Y. Hayashi for experimental support and helpful discussions. We also thank K. Baba and N. Mizuno for experimental support at SPring-8 (Hyogo, Japan), and H. Sugiyama, T. Kishi and R. Suzuki for experimental support at PF (Tsukuba, Japan). The synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction was performed at SPring-8 with the approval of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) (Proposal numbers 2014B1195 and 2015B2046). The synchrotron radiation X-ray topography was performed at the Photon Factory under the auspices of the Photon Factory Program Advisory Committee of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (Proposal numbers 2013G649 and 2015G714). This work was partly supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to Y.M. (KAKENHI Nos. 26286042 and 15K13800) and to H.Y.Y. (KAKENHI grant numbers 15H05351 and 16K12868). This work was also partly supported by a grant from the JGC-S Scholarship foundation to H.Y.Y.

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Author notes

  1. Mihoko Maruyama

    Present address: Present addresses: Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, Hangi-cho 1-5, Shimogamo, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8522, Japan; Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, N19-W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Yamadaoka 2-1, Suita, 565-0871, Osaka, Japan

    Yusuke Tominaga, Mihoko Maruyama, Masashi Yoshimura, Hiroaki Adachi, Katsuo Tsukamoto, Tsuyoshi Inoue, Hiroshi Y. Yoshikawa & Yusuke Mori

  2. Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, 980-8577, Sendai, Japan

    Haruhiko Koizumi

  3. Graduate School of Nanobioscience, Yokohama City University, Seto 22-2, Kanazawa-ku, 236-0027, Yokohama, Japan

    Masaru Tachibana

  4. Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Yamadaoka 2-1, Suita, 565-0871, Osaka, Japan

    Shigeru Sugiyama

  5. SOSHO Inc., Yamadaoka 2-1, Suita, 565-0871, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroaki Adachi, Hiroyoshi Matsumura, Kazufumi Takano, Satoshi Murakami, Tsuyoshi Inoue & Yusuke Mori

  6. College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Noji-higashi 1-1-1, Kusatsu, 525-8577, Shiga, Japan

    Hiroyoshi Matsumura

  7. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, Hangi-cho 1-5, Shimogamo, Sakyo-ku, 606-8522, Kyoto, Japan

    Kazufumi Takano

  8. Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nagatsuda 4259, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8501, Kanagawa, Japan

    Satoshi Murakami

  9. Department of Chemistry, Saitama University, Shimo-okubo 255, Sakura-ku, Saitama, 338-8570, Saitama, Japan

    Hiroshi Y. Yoshikawa

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  1. Yusuke Tominaga
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Contributions

Y.T., M.M. and H.Y.Y. designed the research and wrote the paper. Y.T. carried out the laser experiments with help from M.M., H.Y.Y., M.Y. and Y.M. S.S. helped to perform the X-ray diffraction experiments. H.K. and M.T. carried out the X-ray topography measurements. All authors discussed the results.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mihoko Maruyama or Hiroshi Y. Yoshikawa.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Tominaga, Y., Maruyama, M., Yoshimura, M. et al. Promotion of protein crystal growth by actively switching crystal growth mode via femtosecond laser ablation. Nature Photon 10, 723–726 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.202

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