Towards phasing using high X-ray intensity.
IUCrJ
; 2(Pt 6): 627-34, 2015 Nov 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26594370
ABSTRACT
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) show great promise for macromolecular structure determination from sub-micrometre-sized crystals, using the emerging method of serial femtosecond crystallography. The extreme brightness of the XFEL radiation can multiply ionize most, if not all, atoms in a protein, causing their scattering factors to change during the pulse, with a preferential 'bleaching' of heavy atoms. This paper investigates the effects of electronic damage on experimental data collected from a Gd derivative of lysozyme microcrystals at different X-ray intensities, and the degree of ionization of Gd atoms is quantified from phased difference Fourier maps. A pattern sorting scheme is proposed to maximize the ionization contrast and the way in which the local electronic damage can be used for a new experimental phasing method is discussed.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
IUCrJ
Year:
2015
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Germany