title: Microcrystal delivery by pulsed liquid droplet for serial femtosecond crystallography.
abstract: A liquid-droplet injector has been developed that delivers pristine microcrystals to an X-ray irradiation area for conducting serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) with an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). By finely tuning the pulsed liquid droplets in time and space, a high hit rate of the XFEL pulses to microcrystals in the droplets was achieved for measurements using 5 µm tetragonal lysozyme crystals, which produced 4265 indexable diffraction images in about 30 min. The structure was determined at a resolution of 2.3 Å from <0.3 mg of protein. With further improvements such as reduction of the droplet size, liquid droplets have considerable potential as a crystal carrier for SFX with low sample consumption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Science, School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
authors.forename: Fumitaka
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mafuné
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Science, School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyajima
authors.affiliation: Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, Koto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198, Japan.
authors.forename: Kensuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tono
authors.affiliation: East Tokyo Laboratory, Genesis Research Institute Inc., Futamata, Ichikawa, Chiba 272-0001, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Gakushuin University, Mejiro, Toshima, Tokyo 171-8588, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun-ya
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Gakushuin University, Mejiro, Toshima, Tokyo 171-8588, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miyauchi
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, RIKEN, Koto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, Koto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasumasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Joti
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, RIKEN, Koto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan.
authors.forename: Eriko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nango
authors.affiliation: RIKEN SPring-8 Center, RIKEN, Koto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan.
authors.forename: So
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.affiliation: Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, Koto, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5198, Japan.
authors.forename: Makina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yabashi
mesh_terms: D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*
keywords: X-ray free-electron laser; liquid-droplet injector; lysozyme; serial femtosecond crystallography