Membrane protein structural biology using X-ray free electron lasers.
Membrane protein structural biology has benefitted tremendously from access to micro-focus crystallography at synchrotron radiation sources. X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) are linear accelerator driven X-ray sources that deliver a jump in peak X-ray brilliance of nine orders of magnitude and represent a disruptive technology with potential to dramatically change the field. Membrane proteins were amongst the first macromolecules to be studied with XFEL radiation and include proof-of-principle demonstrations of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX), the observation that XFEL data can deliver damage free crystallographic structures, initial experiments towards recording structural information from 2D arrays of membrane proteins, and time-resolved SFX, time-resolved wide angle X-ray scattering and time-resolved X-ray emission spectroscopy studies. Conversely, serial crystallography methods are now being applied using synchrotron radiation. We believe that a context dependent choice of synchrotron or XFEL radiation will accelerate progress towards novel insights in understanding membrane protein structure and dynamics.
Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Box 462, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden. Electronic address: richard.neutze@chem.gu.se.
Richard
R
Neutze
Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Box 462, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Gisela
G
Brändén
Laboratory of Biomolecular Research, Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland; Biology Department, ETH Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland. Electronic address: gebhard.schertler@psi.ch.
Gebhard F X
GF
Schertler
D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004583:Electrons; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D008967:Molecular Biology; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission; D017356:Synchrotrons
D008565:Membrane Proteins