title: Serial femtosecond X-ray diffraction of enveloped virus microcrystals.
abstract: Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) using X-ray free-electron lasers has produced high-resolution, room temperature, time-resolved protein structures. We report preliminary SFX of Sindbis virus, an enveloped icosahedral RNA virus with ∼700 Å diameter. Microcrystals delivered in viscous agarose medium diffracted to ∼40 Å resolution. Small-angle diffuse X-ray scattering overlaid Bragg peaks and analysis suggests this results from molecular transforms of individual particles. Viral proteins undergo structural changes during entry and infection, which could, in principle, be studied with SFX. This is an important step toward determining room temperature structures from virus microcrystals that may enable time-resolved studies of enveloped viruses.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.forename: Chelsie E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Conrad
authors.forename: Nadia A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Zatsepin
authors.forename: Thomas D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: Haiguang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: Garrett
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Ganesh
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Subramanian
authors.affiliation: Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory , Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aquila
authors.affiliation: Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory , Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.affiliation: Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory , Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Mengning
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory , Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boutet
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coe
authors.forename: John C H
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Spence
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Weierstall
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fromme
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Bridge Institute, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, USA.
authors.forename: Vadim
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cherezov
authors.forename: Brenda G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Hogue