Preliminary Crystallographic Analysis of a Cruciferin Protein from Seeds of Moringa oleifera

A 55 kDa cruciferin protein has been purified and characterized from seeds of Moringa oleifera plant. Protein blast of N-terminal amino-acid sequence showed 60 % sequence similarity with cruciferin from Brassica napus. The M. oleifera protein has been crystallized applying the sitting drop method using 5 % polyethylene glycol 8,000, 38.5 % 3-methyl-1,5-pentanediol and 0.1 M sodium cacodylate pH 6.5. The crystals belonged to the P6322 hexagonal space group with cell dimensions, a = b = 98.4, c = 274.3 angstrom. Initial diffraction data have been collected to a resolution of 6 angstrom.