Crystallization of human nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase

In the NAD biosynthetic pathway, nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NMPRTase; EC 2.4.2.12) plays an important role in catalyzing the synthesis of nicotinamide mononucleotide from nicotinamide and 5'-phosphoribosyl-1'- pyrophosphate. Because the diffraction pattern of the initally obtained crystals was not suitable for structure analysis, the crystal quality was improved by successive use of the microseeding technique. The resultant crystals diffracted to 2.0 angstrom resolution. These crystals belonged to space group P21, with unit-cell parameters a = 60.56, b = 106.40, c = 82.78 angstrom. Here, the crystallization of human NMPRTase is reported in the free form; the crystals should be useful for inhibitor-soaking experiments on the enzyme.