![]() We have learned that that review has been used in many academic and commercial structural biology laboratories as a manual for new members. Although the title was ‘Protein crystallography for non-crystallographers …’, the review contained material that could be useful also to less-experienced practitioners of this field. Thus, some time ago, we published a didactic review that aimed to remedy this situation. The users of macromolecular structures often know even less about how far to trust the published information. Protein crystallography is a branch of science that is now considered to be quite mature, with the unintended consequence that fewer and fewer scientists are actually trained in its application. A discussion of the extent of information that can be gleaned from the atomic coordinates of structures solved at different resolution is provided, as well as problems and pitfalls encountered in structure determination and interpretation. ![]() The present review provides an outline of the technical aspects of crystallography for less experienced practitioners, as well as information that might be useful for users of macromolecular structures, aiming to show them how to interpret (but not overinterpret) the information present in the coordinate files and in their description. ![]() In addition, many noncrystallographers may have problems with the critical evaluation and interpretation of structural results published in the scientific literature. However, this apparent ease is sometimes illusory and proper procedures need to be followed to maintain high standards of structure quality. New hardware and software tools have made crystallography appear to be an almost routine (but still far from being analytical) technique and many structures are now being determined by scientists with very limited experience in the practical aspects of the field. Thousands of papers describing such structures have been published in the scientific literature, and 20 Nobel Prizes in chemistry or medicine have been awarded for discoveries based on macromolecular crystallography. The number of macromolecular structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank now approaches 100 000, with the vast majority of them determined by crystallographic methods. ![]()
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