Towards phasing using high X-ray intensity

• 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.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Strukturbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Structural Biology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

serial femtosecond crystallography

high-intensity phasing

radiation damage

electronic damage

X-ray free-electron lasers

high XFEL doses

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)