The initial objective of the Berkeley Structural Genomics Center was to obtain a near complete three-dimensional (3D) structural information of all soluble proteins of two minimal organisms, closely related pathogensMycoplasma genitaliumandM. pneumoniae. The former has fewer than 500 genes and the latter has fewer than 700 genes. A semiautomated structural genomics pipeline was set up from target selection, cloning, expression, purification, and ultimately structural determination. At the time of this writing, structural information of more than 93% of all soluble proteins ofM. genitaliumis avail able. This chapter summarizes the approaches taken by the authors' center.
