A crystal form of PSMD10 Gankyrin with channels accessible to small molecules

New crystal forms and conditions that aid in rapid formation of crystals would ease the efforts in drug discovery. In addition, if such new crystal forms also yielded high-resolution protein structures, then they can become better templates for screening of drugs using computational tools with better outcome. Such structures are also essential for unambiguous determination of side-chain positions such that subtle conformational changes attributed to mutations, protein dynamics and interactions are true to the proposed mechanism. In this study, we have identified a buffer cocktail which enables crystallization of PSMD10^Gankyrin in a novel crystal form. PSMD10^Gankyrin is important in the biology of the proteasome assembly and functions of the ubiquitin proteasome pathway. It is also a sought-after therapeutic oncoprotein in multiple cancers. This crystal form yielded a high-resolution structure of PSMD10^Gankyrin solved at 1.71 Å. The protein in the crystal is relatively less densely packed with its symmetry-related neighbours. Channels seen all around the protein would guide soaked small molecules to the exposed binding sites. We show that the Alphafold predicted model can be used as an molecular replacement ensemble to solve structures. We also highlight the differences bet­ween the current structure and the Alphafold structure. Thus, the crystal form of PSMD10Gankyrin provides novel insights and opportunities for drug discovery.