| 1. |
- Morgan, Andrew J., et al.
(author)
-
Ab initio phasing of the diffraction of crystals with translational disorder
- 2019
-
In: Acta Crystallographica Section A. - : INT UNION CRYSTALLOGRAPHY. - 2053-2733. ; 75, s. 25-40
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To date X-ray protein crystallography is the most successful technique available for the determination of high-resolution 3D structures of biological molecules and their complexes. In X-ray protein crystallography the structure of a protein is refined against the set of observed Bragg reflections from a protein crystal. The resolution of the refined protein structure is limited by the highest angle at which Bragg reflections can be observed. In addition, the Bragg reflections alone are typically insufficient (by a factor of two) to determine the structure ab initio, and so prior information is required. Crystals formed from an imperfect packing of the protein molecules may also exhibit continuous diffraction between and beyond these Bragg reflections. When this is due to random displacements of the molecules from each crystal lattice site, the continuous diffraction provides the necessary information to determine the protein structure without prior knowledge, to a resolution that is not limited by the angular extent of the observed Bragg reflections but instead by that of the diffraction as a whole. This article presents an iterative projection algorithm that simultaneously uses the continuous diffraction as well as the Bragg reflections for the determination of protein structures. The viability of this method is demonstrated on simulated crystal diffraction.
|
|
| 2. |
- Sala, S., et al.
(author)
-
Ptychographic imaging for the characterization of X-ray free-electron laser beams
- 2017
-
In: X-RAY MICROSCOPY CONFERENCE 2016 (XRM 2016). - : IOP Publishing.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present some preliminary results from a study aimed at the characterization of the wavefront of X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) beams in the same operation conditions as for single particle imaging (or flash X-ray imaging) experiments. The varying illumination produced by wavefront fluctuations between several pulses leads to a partially coherent average beam which can be decomposed into several coherent modes using ptychographic reconstruction algorithms. Such a decomposition can give insight into pulse-to-pulse variations of the wavefront. We discuss data collected at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and FERMI.
|
|
| 3. |
- Östlin, Christofer, et al.
(author)
-
Reproducibility of Single Protein Explosions Induced by X-ray Lasers
- 2018
-
In: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 20:18, s. 12381-12389
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Single particle imaging (SPI) using X-ray pulses has become increasingly attainable with the advent of high-intensity free electron lasers. Eliminating the need for crystallized samples enables structural studies of molecules previously inaccessible by conventional crystallography. While this emerging technique already demonstrates substantial promise, some obstacles need to be overcome before SPI can reach its full potential. One such problem is determining the spatial orientation of the sample at the time of X-ray interaction. Existing solutions rely on diffraction data and are computationally demanding and sensitive to noise. In this in silico study, we explore the possibility of aiding these methods by mapping the ion distribution as the sample undergoes a Coulomb explosion following the intense ionization. By detecting the ions ejected from the fragmented sample, the orientation of the original sample should be possible to determine. Knowledge of the orientation has been shown earlier to be of substantial advantage in the reconstruction of the original structure. 150 explosions of each of twelve separate systems – four polypeptides with different amounts of surface bound water – were simulated with molecular dynamics (MD) and the average angular distribution of carbon and sulfur ions was investigated independently. The results show that the explosion maps are reproducible in both cases, supporting the idea that orientation information is preserved. Additional water seems to restrict the carbon ion trajectories further through a shielding mechanism, making the maps more distinct. For sulfurs, water has no significant impact on the trajectories, likely due to their higher mass and greater ionization cross section, indicating that they could be of particular interest. Based on these findings, we conclude that explosion data can aid spatial orientation in SPI experiments and could substantially improve the capabilities of the novel technique.
|
|
