Hi there, I saw the same phenomenon as your when I worked with one of my protein target. Likely they are very fragile, contain high water percentage and/or due to detergent. Moreover, your protein crystals are affected by temperature, you might start with lower one, 4 Celsius degree by putting your plate in the Fridge. It also important that you keep your plate on ice box and do fishing as quick as possible. Good luck!

Hi Shangji,

I had similar case when working on crystallization of DNA fragments. I had a tetramer GGCC and because it was a short fragment it was very sensitive to temperature fluctuations. I would see crystals in the morning and they would disappear in afternoon. It turned out the cleaning lady was opening windows in the morning and it was winter time. When I realized that I moved my plates to incubator with the lower temperature (12C). That solved the problem.

Your protein could be sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Some crystallography labs have special rooms with constant temperature. If you keep your plates in the refrigerator, make sure you do not keep your plates too long at higher temperatures to prevent condensation when you move them back to low temperature. We had a microscope in the cold room to check plates and mount crystals.

Good Luck.

George.

There definitely is a difference in crystallization. Common observations in my lab is that crystals might form more quickly at room temperature, but they form larger and more slowly in the 4 centigrade cold room. Sometimes protein complexes form in the relaxed (R) or tense (T) states in a temperature dependent manner.