Publication Date:
1991-10-04
Description:
Resonance between beams of x-ray waves and electronic transitions from bound atomic orbitals leads to a phenomenon known as anomalous scattering. This effect can be exploited in x-ray crystallographic studies on biological macromolecules by making diffraction measurements at selected wavelengths associated with a particular resonant transition. In this manner the problem of determining the three-dimensional structure of thousands of atoms is reduced to that of initially solving for a few anomalous scattering centers that can then be used as a reference for developing the entire structure. This method of multiwavelength anomalous diffraction has now been applied in a number of structure determinations. Optimal experiments require appropriate synchrotron instrumentation, careful experimental design, and sophisticated analytical procedures. There are rich opportunities for future applications.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hendrickson, W A -- GM-34102/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1991 Oct 4;254(5028):51-8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1925561" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Crystallography/*methods
;
Models, Molecular
;
*Molecular Structure
;
*Particle Accelerators
;
*Protein Conformation
;
X-Ray Diffraction/*instrumentation
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
