Analysis of Global and Site-Specific Radiation Damage in Cryo-EM
Micro-crystal electron diffraction (MicroED) combines the efficiency of electron scattering with diffraction to allow structure determination from nano-sized crystalline samples in cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM). It has been used to solve structures of a diverse set of biomolecules and materials, in some cases to sub-atomic resolution. However, little is known about the damaging effects of the electron beam on samples during such measurements. Here we assess global and site-specific damage from electron radiation on nanocrystals of proteinase K and of a prion hepta-peptide and find that the dynamics of electron-induced damage follow well-established trends observed in X-ray crystallography. Metal ions are perturbed, disulfide bonds are broken, and acidic side chains are decarboxylated while the diffracted intensities decay exponentially with increasing exposure. A better understanding of radiation damage in MicroED improves our assessment and processing of all types of cryo-EM data.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Howard Hughes Medical Institute; National Science Foundation (NSF); QCB Collaboratory Postdoctoral Fellowship.
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FC02-02ER63421; DMR 1548924
- OSTI ID:
- 1548423
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1538858
- Journal Information:
- Structure, Journal Name: Structure Vol. 26 Journal Issue: 5; ISSN 0969-2126
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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