History of protein crystallography in China

Abstract

China has a strong background in X-ray crystallography dating back to the 1920s. Protein crystallography research in China was first developed following the successful synthesis of insulin in China in 1966. The subsequent determination of the three-dimensional structure of porcine insulin made China one of the few countries which could determine macromolecular structures by X-ray diffraction methods in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a slow period during the 1970s and 1980s, protein crystallography in China has reached a new climax with a number of outstanding accomplishments. Here, I review the history and progress of protein crystallography in China and detail some of the recent research highlights, including the crystal structures of two membrane proteins as well as the structural genomics initiative in China.

Figure 1

A commemorative stamp marking the insulin structure determined by the Peking Insulin Structure Group.

Figure 2

The SARS-CoV M^pro structure complexed with a substrate-analogue inhibitor.

Figure 3

The structure of an icosahedral particle packed by 20 trimers of LHC-II on the cover of Nature, 18 March 2004. Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Physics Volume 428, Number 6980, © 2004.

Figure 4

Schematic figure of three-dimensional structure of mitochondrial respiratory membrane protein complex II (the background shows the electron microscopic figure of mitochondria).