Yuri, I would try to preserve as much of the crystal to use it to seed. I have first hand knowledge of at least three projects that had a haphazardly grown crystal being crucial as a seeding source for the completion of the project. So, option I) (and option safe, and what I would do if there is no indication of "being scooped") use your crystal for streak seeding experiments without testing it in the beam. Establish conditions you can reproducibly get crystals at and go from there. Option II) mount your crystal in a capillary or mitegen to see if it diffracts. Then continue with plan I); this will tell you if the condition is worth pursuing -- that is, if you trust your capillary mounting skills. III) put into your protectant of preference (mine is PFPO), and reharvest after freezing for seeding. You might get lucky (PFPO has slightly more than 50% chance of success in my experience), but chances of getting a good seed stock are lower. In short, seeding is your safest "blind" bet, RT is your safest overall bet.
HTH Jens On Sat, 2012-12-01 at 01:22 +0000, Yuri Pompeu wrote: > Dear community, > I have what seems to be a pretty decent single crystal that grew from a > screen set up 2 weeks ago. > I am trying to reproduce it but so far I have not succeeded. I am however > afraid the crystal that did form will start to deteriorate. So this brings me > to dilemma, I feel like I should try and mount this crystal and shoot it. But > since I only have 1 sample, I do not want to mess this up... I am inclined > to try cryo conditions, but I am afraid the addition of a cryo such as > glycerol could destroy the little guy. > The crystal formed in 30% PEG 4000, 0.1M NaCitrate pH5.6 and 0.2M NH4AcO, I > wonder if this is a cryo condition already? > Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > best,
