ALBERT

Description: 〈p〉We explore the photo-induced kinetics of 1,3-cyclohexadiene upon excitation at 200 nm to the 3p state by ultrafast time-resolved, gas-phase x-ray scattering using the Linac Coherent Light Source. Analysis of the scattering anisotropy reveals that the excitation leads to the 3px and 3py Rydberg electronic states, which relax to the ground state with a time constant of 208 ± 11 fs. In contrast to the well-studied 266 nm excitation, at 200 nm the majority of the molecules (76 ± 3%) relax to vibrationally hot cyclohexadiene in the ground electronic state. A subsequent reaction on the ground electronic state surface leads from the hot cyclohexadiene to 1,3,5-hexatriene, with rates for the forward and backward reactions of 174 ± 13 and 355 ± 45 ps, respectively. The scattering pattern of the final hexatriene product reveals a thermal distribution of rotamers about the carbon-carbon single bonds.〈/p〉

Description: The ultrafast evolution of microstructure is key to understanding high-pressure and strain-rate phenomena. However, the visualization of lattice dynamics at scales commensurate with those of atomistic simulations has been challenging. Here, we report femtosecond x-ray diffraction measurements unveiling the response of copper to laser shock-compression at peak normal elastic stresses of ~73 gigapascals (GPa) and strain rates of 10(9) per second. We capture the evolution of the lattice from a one-dimensional (1D) elastic to a 3D plastically relaxed state within a few tens of picoseconds, after reaching shear stresses of 18 GPa. Our in situ high-precision measurement of material strength at spatial (〈1 micrometer) and temporal (〈50 picoseconds) scales provides a direct comparison with multimillion-atom molecular dynamics simulations.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Milathianaki, D -- Boutet, S -- Williams, G J -- Higginbotham, A -- Ratner, D -- Gleason, A E -- Messerschmidt, M -- Seibert, M M -- Swift, D C -- Hering, P -- Robinson, J -- White, W E -- Wark, J S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Oct 11;342(6155):220-3. doi: 10.1126/science.1239566.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. despina@slac.stanford.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24115435" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: X-ray lasers offer new capabilities in understanding the structure of biological systems, complex materials and matter under extreme conditions. Very short and extremely bright, coherent X-ray pulses can be used to outrun key damage processes and obtain a single diffraction pattern from a large macromolecule, a virus or a cell before the sample explodes and turns into plasma. The continuous diffraction pattern of non-crystalline objects permits oversampling and direct phase retrieval. Here we show that high-quality diffraction data can be obtained with a single X-ray pulse from a non-crystalline biological sample, a single mimivirus particle, which was injected into the pulsed beam of a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. Calculations indicate that the energy deposited into the virus by the pulse heated the particle to over 100,000 K after the pulse had left the sample. The reconstructed exit wavefront (image) yielded 32-nm full-period resolution in a single exposure and showed no measurable damage. The reconstruction indicates inhomogeneous arrangement of dense material inside the virion. We expect that significantly higher resolutions will be achieved in such experiments with shorter and brighter photon pulses focused to a smaller area. The resolution in such experiments can be further extended for samples available in multiple identical copies.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038304/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038304/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Seibert, M Marvin -- Ekeberg, Tomas -- Maia, Filipe R N C -- Svenda, Martin -- Andreasson, Jakob -- Jonsson, Olof -- Odic, Dusko -- Iwan, Bianca -- Rocker, Andrea -- Westphal, Daniel -- Hantke, Max -- DePonte, Daniel P -- Barty, Anton -- Schulz, Joachim -- Gumprecht, Lars -- Coppola, Nicola -- Aquila, Andrew -- Liang, Mengning -- White, Thomas A -- Martin, Andrew -- Caleman, Carl -- Stern, Stephan -- Abergel, Chantal -- Seltzer, Virginie -- Claverie, Jean-Michel -- Bostedt, Christoph -- Bozek, John D -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Miahnahri, A Alan -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Krzywinski, Jacek -- Williams, Garth -- Hodgson, Keith O -- Bogan, Michael J -- Hampton, Christina Y -- Sierra, Raymond G -- Starodub, Dmitri -- Andersson, Inger -- Bajt, Sasa -- Barthelmess, Miriam -- Spence, John C H -- Fromme, Petra -- Weierstall, Uwe -- Kirian, Richard -- Hunter, Mark -- Doak, R Bruce -- Marchesini, Stefano -- Hau-Riege, Stefan P -- Frank, Matthias -- Shoeman, Robert L -- Lomb, Lukas -- Epp, Sascha W -- Hartmann, Robert -- Rolles, Daniel -- Rudenko, Artem -- Schmidt, Carlo -- Foucar, Lutz -- Kimmel, Nils -- Holl, Peter -- Rudek, Benedikt -- Erk, Benjamin -- Homke, Andre -- Reich, Christian -- Pietschner, Daniel -- Weidenspointner, Georg -- Struder, Lothar -- Hauser, Gunter -- Gorke, Hubert -- Ullrich, Joachim -- Schlichting, Ilme -- Herrmann, Sven -- Schaller, Gerhard -- Schopper, Florian -- Soltau, Heike -- Kuhnel, Kai-Uwe -- Andritschke, Robert -- Schroter, Claus-Dieter -- Krasniqi, Faton -- Bott, Mario -- Schorb, Sebastian -- Rupp, Daniela -- Adolph, Marcus -- Gorkhover, Tais -- Hirsemann, Helmut -- Potdevin, Guillaume -- Graafsma, Heinz -- Nilsson, Bjorn -- Chapman, Henry N -- Hajdu, Janos -- R01 GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2011 Feb 3;470(7332):78-81. doi: 10.1038/nature09748.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21293374" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: X-ray crystallography provides the vast majority of macromolecular structures, but the success of the method relies on growing crystals of sufficient size. In conventional measurements, the necessary increase in X-ray dose to record data from crystals that are too small leads to extensive damage before a diffraction signal can be recorded. It is particularly challenging to obtain large, well-diffracting crystals of membrane proteins, for which fewer than 300 unique structures have been determined despite their importance in all living cells. Here we present a method for structure determination where single-crystal X-ray diffraction 'snapshots' are collected from a fully hydrated stream of nanocrystals using femtosecond pulses from a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. We prove this concept with nanocrystals of photosystem I, one of the largest membrane protein complexes. More than 3,000,000 diffraction patterns were collected in this study, and a three-dimensional data set was assembled from individual photosystem I nanocrystals ( approximately 200 nm to 2 mum in size). We mitigate the problem of radiation damage in crystallography by using pulses briefer than the timescale of most damage processes. This offers a new approach to structure determination of macromolecules that do not yield crystals of sufficient size for studies using conventional radiation sources or are particularly sensitive to radiation damage.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3429598/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3429598/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chapman, Henry N -- Fromme, Petra -- Barty, Anton -- White, Thomas A -- Kirian, Richard A -- Aquila, Andrew -- Hunter, Mark S -- Schulz, Joachim -- DePonte, Daniel P -- Weierstall, Uwe -- Doak, R Bruce -- Maia, Filipe R N C -- Martin, Andrew V -- Schlichting, Ilme -- Lomb, Lukas -- Coppola, Nicola -- Shoeman, Robert L -- Epp, Sascha W -- Hartmann, Robert -- Rolles, Daniel -- Rudenko, Artem -- Foucar, Lutz -- Kimmel, Nils -- Weidenspointner, Georg -- Holl, Peter -- Liang, Mengning -- Barthelmess, Miriam -- Caleman, Carl -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Bogan, Michael J -- Krzywinski, Jacek -- Bostedt, Christoph -- Bajt, Sasa -- Gumprecht, Lars -- Rudek, Benedikt -- Erk, Benjamin -- Schmidt, Carlo -- Homke, Andre -- Reich, Christian -- Pietschner, Daniel -- Struder, Lothar -- Hauser, Gunter -- Gorke, Hubert -- Ullrich, Joachim -- Herrmann, Sven -- Schaller, Gerhard -- Schopper, Florian -- Soltau, Heike -- Kuhnel, Kai-Uwe -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Bozek, John D -- Hau-Riege, Stefan P -- Frank, Matthias -- Hampton, Christina Y -- Sierra, Raymond G -- Starodub, Dmitri -- Williams, Garth J -- Hajdu, Janos -- Timneanu, Nicusor -- Seibert, M Marvin -- Andreasson, Jakob -- Rocker, Andrea -- Jonsson, Olof -- Svenda, Martin -- Stern, Stephan -- Nass, Karol -- Andritschke, Robert -- Schroter, Claus-Dieter -- Krasniqi, Faton -- Bott, Mario -- Schmidt, Kevin E -- Wang, Xiaoyu -- Grotjohann, Ingo -- Holton, James M -- Barends, Thomas R M -- Neutze, Richard -- Marchesini, Stefano -- Fromme, Raimund -- Schorb, Sebastian -- Rupp, Daniela -- Adolph, Marcus -- Gorkhover, Tais -- Andersson, Inger -- Hirsemann, Helmut -- Potdevin, Guillaume -- Graafsma, Heinz -- Nilsson, Bjorn -- Spence, John C H -- 1R01GM095583-01/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- 1U54GM094625-01/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U54 GM094599/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U54 GM094625/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2011 Feb 3;470(7332):73-7. doi: 10.1038/nature09750.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. henry.chapman@desy.de〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21293373" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Photosynthesis, a process catalysed by plants, algae and cyanobacteria converts sunlight to energy thus sustaining all higher life on Earth. Two large membrane protein complexes, photosystem I and II (PSI and PSII), act in series to catalyse the light-driven reactions in photosynthesis. PSII catalyses the light-driven water splitting process, which maintains the Earth's oxygenic atmosphere. In this process, the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of PSII cycles through five states, S0 to S4, in which four electrons are sequentially extracted from the OEC in four light-driven charge-separation events. Here we describe time resolved experiments on PSII nano/microcrystals from Thermosynechococcus elongatus performed with the recently developed technique of serial femtosecond crystallography. Structures have been determined from PSII in the dark S1 state and after double laser excitation (putative S3 state) at 5 and 5.5 A resolution, respectively. The results provide evidence that PSII undergoes significant conformational changes at the electron acceptor side and at the Mn4CaO5 core of the OEC. These include an elongation of the metal cluster, accompanied by changes in the protein environment, which could allow for binding of the second substrate water molecule between the more distant protruding Mn (referred to as the 'dangler' Mn) and the Mn3CaOx cubane in the S2 to S3 transition, as predicted by spectroscopic and computational studies. This work shows the great potential for time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography for investigation of catalytic processes in biomolecules.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kupitz, Christopher -- Basu, Shibom -- Grotjohann, Ingo -- Fromme, Raimund -- Zatsepin, Nadia A -- Rendek, Kimberly N -- Hunter, Mark S -- Shoeman, Robert L -- White, Thomas A -- Wang, Dingjie -- James, Daniel -- Yang, Jay-How -- Cobb, Danielle E -- Reeder, Brenda -- Sierra, Raymond G -- Liu, Haiguang -- Barty, Anton -- Aquila, Andrew L -- Deponte, Daniel -- Kirian, Richard A -- Bari, Sadia -- Bergkamp, Jesse J -- Beyerlein, Kenneth R -- Bogan, Michael J -- Caleman, Carl -- Chao, Tzu-Chiao -- Conrad, Chelsie E -- Davis, Katherine M -- Fleckenstein, Holger -- Galli, Lorenzo -- Hau-Riege, Stefan P -- Kassemeyer, Stephan -- Laksmono, Hartawan -- Liang, Mengning -- Lomb, Lukas -- Marchesini, Stefano -- Martin, Andrew V -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Milathianaki, Despina -- Nass, Karol -- Ros, Alexandra -- Roy-Chowdhury, Shatabdi -- Schmidt, Kevin -- Seibert, Marvin -- Steinbrener, Jan -- Stellato, Francesco -- Yan, Lifen -- Yoon, Chunhong -- Moore, Thomas A -- Moore, Ana L -- Pushkar, Yulia -- Williams, Garth J -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Doak, R Bruce -- Weierstall, Uwe -- Frank, Matthias -- Chapman, Henry N -- Spence, John C H -- Fromme, Petra -- 1R01GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2014 Sep 11;513(7517):261-5. doi: 10.1038/nature13453. Epub 2014 Jul 9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1604, USA [2]. ; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1604, USA. ; Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA. ; 1] Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1604, USA [2] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA. ; Max-Planck-Institut fur medizinische Forschung, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. ; Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. ; Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. ; 1] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] European XFEL GmbH, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. ; 1] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] Linac Coherent Light Source, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. ; 1] Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA [2] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. ; 1] Max Planck Advanced Study Group, Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. ; 1] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Regementsvagen 1, SE-752 37 Uppsala, Sweden. ; 1] Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1604, USA [2] University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Pkwy Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2, Canada. ; Department of Physics, Purdue University, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA. ; 1] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] University of Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany. ; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA. ; 1] Max-Planck-Institut fur medizinische Forschung, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany [2] Max Planck Advanced Study Group, Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. ; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. ; 1] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] Department ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science, Department of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia. ; Linac Coherent Light Source, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. ; 1] Max-Planck-Institut fur medizinische Forschung, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany [2] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [3] University of Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany. ; 1] Linac Coherent Light Source, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA [2] Uppsala University, Sankt Olofsgatan 10B, 753 12 Uppsala, Sweden. ; 1] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] University of Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany [3] Center for Ultrafast Imaging, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25043005" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Water has a number of anomalous physical properties, and some of these become drastically enhanced on supercooling below the freezing point. Particular interest has focused on thermodynamic response functions that can be described using a normal component and an anomalous component that seems to diverge at about 228 kelvin (refs 1-3). This has prompted debate about conflicting theories that aim to explain many of the anomalous thermodynamic properties of water. One popular theory attributes the divergence to a phase transition between two forms of liquid water occurring in the 'no man's land' that lies below the homogeneous ice nucleation temperature (TH) at approximately 232 kelvin and above about 160 kelvin, and where rapid ice crystallization has prevented any measurements of the bulk liquid phase. In fact, the reliable determination of the structure of liquid water typically requires temperatures above about 250 kelvin. Water crystallization has been inhibited by using nanoconfinement, nanodroplets and association with biomolecules to give liquid samples at temperatures below TH, but such measurements rely on nanoscopic volumes of water where the interaction with the confining surfaces makes the relevance to bulk water unclear. Here we demonstrate that femtosecond X-ray laser pulses can be used to probe the structure of liquid water in micrometre-sized droplets that have been evaporatively cooled below TH. We find experimental evidence for the existence of metastable bulk liquid water down to temperatures of 227(-1)(+2) kelvin in the previously largely unexplored no man's land. We observe a continuous and accelerating increase in structural ordering on supercooling to approximately 229 kelvin, where the number of droplets containing ice crystals increases rapidly. But a few droplets remain liquid for about a millisecond even at this temperature. The hope now is that these observations and our detailed structural data will help identify those theories that best describe and explain the behaviour of water.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sellberg, J A -- Huang, C -- McQueen, T A -- Loh, N D -- Laksmono, H -- Schlesinger, D -- Sierra, R G -- Nordlund, D -- Hampton, C Y -- Starodub, D -- DePonte, D P -- Beye, M -- Chen, C -- Martin, A V -- Barty, A -- Wikfeldt, K T -- Weiss, T M -- Caronna, C -- Feldkamp, J -- Skinner, L B -- Seibert, M M -- Messerschmidt, M -- Williams, G J -- Boutet, S -- Pettersson, L G M -- Bogan, M J -- Nilsson, A -- England -- Nature. 2014 Jun 19;510(7505):381-4. doi: 10.1038/nature13266.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA [2] Department of Physics, AlbaNova University Center, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. ; Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 20450, Stanford, California 94309, USA. ; 1] SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA [2] Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. ; PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. ; Department of Physics, AlbaNova University Center, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. ; 1] Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany [2] Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 20450, Stanford, California 94309, USA. ; 1] SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA [2] Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fur Materialien und Energie GmbH, Wilhelm-Conrad-Rontgen Campus, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany. ; Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. ; Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 20450, Stanford, California 94309, USA. ; Mineral Physics Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, New York 11794-2100, USA. ; 1] SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA [2] Department of Physics, AlbaNova University Center, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden [3] Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 20450, Stanford, California 94309, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24943953" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The determination of protein crystal structures is hampered by the need for macroscopic crystals. X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) provide extremely intense pulses of femtosecond duration, which allow data collection from nanometre- to micrometre-sized crystals in a 'diffraction-before-destruction' approach. So far, all protein structure determinations carried out using FELs have been based on previous knowledge of related, known structures. Here we show that X-ray FEL data can be used for de novo protein structure determination, that is, without previous knowledge about the structure. Using the emerging technique of serial femtosecond crystallography, we performed single-wavelength anomalous scattering measurements on microcrystals of the well-established model system lysozyme, in complex with a lanthanide compound. Using Monte-Carlo integration, we obtained high-quality diffraction intensities from which experimental phases could be determined, resulting in an experimental electron density map good enough for automated building of the protein structure. This demonstrates the feasibility of determining novel protein structures using FELs. We anticipate that serial femtosecond crystallography will become an important tool for the structure determination of proteins that are difficult to crystallize, such as membrane proteins.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Barends, Thomas R M -- Foucar, Lutz -- Botha, Sabine -- Doak, R Bruce -- Shoeman, Robert L -- Nass, Karol -- Koglin, Jason E -- Williams, Garth J -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Schlichting, Ilme -- England -- Nature. 2014 Jan 9;505(7482):244-7. doi: 10.1038/nature12773. Epub 2013 Nov 24.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Jahnstrasse 29, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. ; 1] Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Jahnstrasse 29, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany [2] Department of Physics, Arizona State University, PO Box 871504, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1504, USA. ; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24270807" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Author(s): T. Pardini, J. Alameda, A. Aquila, S. Boutet, T. Decker, A. E. Gleason, S. Guillet, P. Hamilton, M. Hayes, R. Hill, J. Koglin, B. Kozioziemski, J. Robinson, K. Sokolowski-Tinten, R. Soufli, and S. P. Hau-Riege In this work, we monitor the onset of nonthermal melting in single-crystal silicon by implementing an x-ray pump–x-ray probe scheme. Using the ultrashort pulses provided by the Linac Coherent Light Source (SLAC) and a custom-built split-and-delay line for hard x rays, we achieve the temporal resolut... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 265701] Published Mon Jun 25, 2018

Description: Structure determination of proteins and other macromolecules has historically required the growth of high-quality crystals sufficiently large to diffract x-rays efficiently while withstanding radiation damage. We applied serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) using an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) to obtain high-resolution structural information from microcrystals (less than 1 micrometer by 1 micrometer by 3 micrometers) of the well-characterized model protein lysozyme. The agreement with synchrotron data demonstrates the immediate relevance of SFX for analyzing the structure of the large group of difficult-to-crystallize molecules.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788707/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788707/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Boutet, Sebastien -- Lomb, Lukas -- Williams, Garth J -- Barends, Thomas R M -- Aquila, Andrew -- Doak, R Bruce -- Weierstall, Uwe -- DePonte, Daniel P -- Steinbrener, Jan -- Shoeman, Robert L -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Barty, Anton -- White, Thomas A -- Kassemeyer, Stephan -- Kirian, Richard A -- Seibert, M Marvin -- Montanez, Paul A -- Kenney, Chris -- Herbst, Ryan -- Hart, Philip -- Pines, Jack -- Haller, Gunther -- Gruner, Sol M -- Philipp, Hugh T -- Tate, Mark W -- Hromalik, Marianne -- Koerner, Lucas J -- van Bakel, Niels -- Morse, John -- Ghonsalves, Wilfred -- Arnlund, David -- Bogan, Michael J -- Caleman, Carl -- Fromme, Raimund -- Hampton, Christina Y -- Hunter, Mark S -- Johansson, Linda C -- Katona, Gergely -- Kupitz, Christopher -- Liang, Mengning -- Martin, Andrew V -- Nass, Karol -- Redecke, Lars -- Stellato, Francesco -- Timneanu, Nicusor -- Wang, Dingjie -- Zatsepin, Nadia A -- Schafer, Donald -- Defever, James -- Neutze, Richard -- Fromme, Petra -- Spence, John C H -- Chapman, Henry N -- Schlichting, Ilme -- 1R01GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2012 Jul 20;337(6092):362-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1217737. Epub 2012 May 31.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. sboutet@slac.stanford.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22653729" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Intense femtosecond x-ray pulses produced at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) were used for simultaneous x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) of microcrystals of photosystem II (PS II) at room temperature. This method probes the overall protein structure and the electronic structure of the Mn4CaO5 cluster in the oxygen-evolving complex of PS II. XRD data are presented from both the dark state (S1) and the first illuminated state (S2) of PS II. Our simultaneous XRD-XES study shows that the PS II crystals are intact during our measurements at the LCLS, not only with respect to the structure of PS II, but also with regard to the electronic structure of the highly radiation-sensitive Mn4CaO5 cluster, opening new directions for future dynamics studies.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3732582/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3732582/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kern, Jan -- Alonso-Mori, Roberto -- Tran, Rosalie -- Hattne, Johan -- Gildea, Richard J -- Echols, Nathaniel -- Glockner, Carina -- Hellmich, Julia -- Laksmono, Hartawan -- Sierra, Raymond G -- Lassalle-Kaiser, Benedikt -- Koroidov, Sergey -- Lampe, Alyssa -- Han, Guangye -- Gul, Sheraz -- Difiore, Dorte -- Milathianaki, Despina -- Fry, Alan R -- Miahnahri, Alan -- Schafer, Donald W -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Seibert, M Marvin -- Koglin, Jason E -- Sokaras, Dimosthenis -- Weng, Tsu-Chien -- Sellberg, Jonas -- Latimer, Matthew J -- Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W -- Zwart, Petrus H -- White, William E -- Glatzel, Pieter -- Adams, Paul D -- Bogan, Michael J -- Williams, Garth J -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Messinger, Johannes -- Zouni, Athina -- Sauter, Nicholas K -- Yachandra, Vittal K -- Bergmann, Uwe -- Yano, Junko -- GM095887/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- GM102520/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P01 GM063210/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P41GM103393/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM055302/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM095887/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM102520/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Apr 26;340(6131):491-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1234273. Epub 2013 Feb 14.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23413188" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉