Orthorhombic crystals of bovine F-1-ATPase have been subjected to controlled dehydration. A decrease in the relative humidity surrounding the crystals to 90% reproducibly reduced their unit-cell volume by 22% (950 000 angstrom(3)) and improved the diffraction limit and mosaic spread of the crystals significantly. These dehydrated crystals diffracted X--rays to 1.8 angstrom resolution at a synchrotron source, the best diffraction limit yet attained with these crystals, although radiation damage limited the resolution of a complete data set to 1.95 angstrom.
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