Preliminary x-ray diffraction studies on an anti-viral protein.

An anti-viral enzyme from $\text{Phytolacca americana}$, known to inhibit protein synthesis has been crystallized in a form useful for high resolution x-ray diffraction studies. Cracking of crystals due to the introduction of heavy metals can be reduced by cross linking with glutaraldehyde using a rapid fixation method. Several apparent isomorphous heavy metal derivatives of the crystal have been found. The molecular weight of the protein has been reevaluated as 31,000 daltons.