Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of the major peanut allergen Ara h 1 core region

Peanuts contain some of the most potent food allergens known to date. Ara h 1 is one of the three major peanut allergens. As a first step towards three-dimensional structure elucidation, recombinant Ara h 1 core region was cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. Crystals were obtained using 0.1 M sodium citrate pH 5.6, 0.1 M NaCl, 15% PEG 400 as precipitant. The crystals diffracted to 2.25 Å resolution using synchrotron radiation and belonged to the monoclinic space group C 2, with unit-cell parameters a = 156.521, b = 88.991, c = 158.971 Å, β = 107.144°. Data were collected at the BL-38B1 station of SPring-8 (Hyogo, Japan).