title: Quantitative imaging of single, unstained viruses with coherent x rays.
abstract: We report the recording and reconstruction of x-ray diffraction patterns from single, unstained viruses, for the first time. By separating the diffraction pattern of the virus particles from that of their surroundings, we performed quantitative and high-contrast imaging of a single virion. The structure of the viral capsid inside a virion was visualized. This work opens the door for quantitative x-ray imaging of a broad range of specimens from protein machineries and viruses to cellular organelles. Moreover, our experiment is directly transferable to the use of x-ray free electron lasers, and represents an experimental milestone towards the x-ray imaging of large protein complexes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Changyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Huaidong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mancuso
authors.forename: Bagrat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Amirbekian
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Ren
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Sanket S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Z Hong
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Jianwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miao
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D051379:Mice; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods; D018144:Rhadinovirus / Q000737:chemistry*; D014771:Virion / Q000737:chemistry*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*