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- Cellini, Andrea, 1991, et al.
(author)
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Directed ultrafast conformational changes accompany electron transfer in a photolyase as resolved by serial crystallography.
- 2024
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In: Nature chemistry. - : Springer Nature. - 1755-4349 .- 1755-4330.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Charge-transfer reactions in proteins are important for life, such as in photolyases which repair DNA, but the role of structural dynamics remains unclear. Here, using femtosecond X-ray crystallography, we report the structural changes that take place while electrons transfer along a chain of four conserved tryptophans in the Drosophila melanogaster (6-4) photolyase. At femto- and picosecond delays, photoreduction of the flavin by the first tryptophan causes directed structural responses at a key asparagine, at a conserved salt bridge, and by rearrangements of nearby water molecules. We detect charge-induced structural changes close to the second tryptophan from 1 ps to 20 ps, identifying a nearby methionine as an active participant in the redox chain, and from 20 ps around the fourth tryptophan. The photolyase undergoes highly directed and carefully timed adaptations of its structure. This questions the validity of the linear solvent response approximation in Marcus theory and indicates that evolution has optimized fast protein fluctuations for optimal charge transfer.
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| 3. |
- Konold, Patrick E., et al.
(author)
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3D-printed sheet jet for stable megahertz liquid sample delivery at X-ray free-electron lasers
- 2023
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In: IUCrJ. - : International Union Of Crystallography. - 2052-2525. ; 10, s. 662-670
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) can probe chemical and biological reactions as they unfold with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. A principal challenge in this pursuit involves the delivery of samples to the X-ray interaction point in such a way that produces data of the highest possible quality and with maximal efficiency. This is hampered by intrinsic constraints posed by the light source and operation within a beamline environment. For liquid samples, the solution typically involves some form of high-speed liquid jet, capable of keeping up with the rate of X-ray pulses. However, conventional jets are not ideal because of radiation-induced explosions of the jet, as well as their cylindrical geometry combined with the X-ray pointing instability of many beamlines which causes the interaction volume to differ for every pulse. This complicates data analysis and contributes to measurement errors. An alternative geometry is a liquid sheet jet which, with its constant thickness over large areas, eliminates the problems related to X-ray pointing. Since liquid sheets can be made very thin, the radiation-induced explosion is reduced, boosting their stability. These are especially attractive for experiments which benefit from small interaction volumes such as fluctuation X-ray scattering and several types of spectroscopy. Although their use has increased for soft X-ray applications in recent years, there has not yet been wide-scale adoption at XFELs. Here, gas-accelerated liquid sheet jet sample injection is demonstrated at the European XFEL SPB/SFX nano focus beamline. Its performance relative to a conventional liquid jet is evaluated and superior performance across several key factors has been found. This includes a thickness profile ranging from hundreds of nanometres to 60 nm, a fourfold increase in background stability and favorable radiation-induced explosion dynamics at high repetition rates up to 1.13 MHz. Its minute thickness also suggests that ultrafast single-particle solution scattering is a possibility.
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| 4. |
- Konold, Patrick, et al.
(author)
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Microsecond time-resolved X-ray scattering by utilizing MHz repetition rate at second-generation XFELs
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Detecting microsecond structural perturbations in biomolecules has wide relevance inbiology, chemistry, and medicine. Here, we show how MHz repetition rates at X-ray freeelectron lasers (XFELs) can be used to produce microsecond time-series of proteinscattering with exceptionally low noise levels of 0.001%. We demonstrate the approach byderiving new mechanistic insight into Jɑ helix unfolding of a Light-Oxygen-Voltage (LOV)photosensory domain. This time-resolved acquisition strategy is easy to implement andwidely applicable for direct observation of structural dynamics of many biochemicalprocesses.
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