Regarding that paper, I would point out that cytosols generally contain 50-100 mM glutamate, so it makes sense that glutamate enhances solubility.
JPK From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Evans, Nicola Sent: Monday, May 08, 2017 8:54 AM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] BSA as additive I haven't used BSA, but I did recently use 50mM L-glutamic acid for this exact reason (and 5% glycerol in all buffers except the last one for crystallography) after reading this paper and it made a big difference to my last protein prep: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15264823 For my final crystallography buffer I have tried with and without L-glutamic acid (as I am trying to optimise micro-crystals and worried the L-glu would make sample too soluble) but still waiting to see if I get any improvement. Both have drops with micro-crystals already (after 2 days), the L-glutamic acid sample has fewer, hoping some other drops will yield better crystals over time. Hope that helps! Nicola ________________________________ From: CCP4 bulletin board <CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK<mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>> on behalf of Ha Sin <haab...@gmail.com<mailto:haab...@gmail.com>> Sent: 08 May 2017 12:32:44 To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK<mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> Subject: [ccp4bb] BSA as additive Dear CCP4BB members, Sorry about my non crystallography question. Does anyone know of a reference where BSA has been used as an "additive" in the protein concentration step to prevent aggregation of the main protein? I would appreciate your suggestions. Thank you, H.Sin