On the problem of phase transitions in lysozyme crystals

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermal stability of lysozyme crystals, providing experimental evidence that they dissolve above 307 K, and clarifies that observed light scattering anomalies are due to crystal dissolution, not a phase transition.

Contribution

The study challenges previous interpretations by showing that the light scattering anomaly is due to dissolution, not a phase transition, refining understanding of lysozyme crystal behavior.

Findings

Lysozyme crystals dissolve above 307 K.

Light scattering anomalies are due to dissolution, not phase transition.

Crystals exist only below 307 K.

Abstract

We present experimental evidence of the fact that lysozyme crystals, which are grown from their mother solution and exist in it, dissolve on heating above T=307 K. We argue that the anomaly in the light scattering recently observed at the temperature T=307 K and identified in the reference [Svanidze A. V. et al. 2006. JETP Lett. 84: 551] as a structural crystalline phase transition in the single lysozyme crystals, in fact, corresponds to a temperature limit of the crystal existence.