Microcrystal manipulation with laser tweezers
- Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0DE (United Kingdom)
- Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4BU (United Kingdom)
- Research Complex at Harwell, Didcot OX11 0FA (United Kingdom)
Optical trapping has successfully been applied to select and mount microcrystals for subsequent X-ray diffraction experiments. X-ray crystallography is the method of choice to deduce atomic resolution structural information from macromolecules. In recent years, significant investments in structural genomics initiatives have been undertaken to automate all steps in X-ray crystallography from protein expression to structure solution. Robotic systems are widely used to prepare crystallization screens and change samples on synchrotron beamlines for macromolecular crystallography. The only remaining manual handling step is the transfer of the crystal from the mother liquor onto the crystal holder. Manual mounting is relatively straightforward for crystals with dimensions of >25 µm; however, this step is nontrivial for smaller crystals. The mounting of microcrystals is becoming increasingly important as advances in microfocus synchrotron beamlines now allow data collection from crystals with dimensions of only a few micrometres. To make optimal usage of these beamlines, new approaches have to be taken to facilitate and automate this last manual handling step. Optical tweezers, which are routinely used for the manipulation of micrometre-sized objects, have successfully been applied to sort and mount macromolecular crystals on newly designed crystal holders. Diffraction data from CPV type 1 polyhedrin microcrystals mounted with laser tweezers are presented.
- OSTI ID:
- 22347856
- Journal Information:
- Acta Crystallographica. Section D: Biological Crystallography, Vol. 69, Issue Pt 7; Other Information: PMCID: PMC3689533; PMID: 23793156; PUBLISHER-ID: ba5196; OAI: oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3689533; Copyright (c) Wagner et al. 2013; This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are cited.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0907-4449
- Country of Publication:
- Denmark
- Language:
- English
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