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Title: Femtosecond X-ray coherent diffraction of aligned amyloid fibrils on low background graphene

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [7];  [8];  [9]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [2];  [10]; ORCiD logo [4];  [11];  [11] more »; ORCiD logo [11];  [11];  [12];  [6]; ORCiD logo [5];  [2]; ORCiD logo [13] « less
  1. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Hamburg (Germany)
  2. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)
  3. Univ. of Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland)
  4. Univ. of Basel, Basel (Switzerland)
  5. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  6. Univ. of Canterbury, Christchurch (New Zealand)
  7. Dept. of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Gothenburg (Sweden)
  8. Univ. de Bordeaux, Pessac (France)
  9. Univ. of Copenhagen, Copenhagen (Denmark)
  10. ETH Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland)
  11. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  12. Univ. of Oxford, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom); Diamond Light Source, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom)
  13. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Hamburg (Germany); Univ. of Hamburg, Hamburg (Germany)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here we present a new approach to diffraction imaging of amyloid fibrils, combining a free-standing graphene support and single nanofocused X-ray pulses of femtosecond duration from an X-ray free-electron laser. Due to the very low background scattering from the graphene support and mutual alignment of filaments, diffraction from tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) filaments and amyloid protofibrils is obtained to 2.7 Å and 2.4 Å resolution in single diffraction patterns, respectively. Some TMV diffraction patterns exhibit asymmetry that indicates the presence of a limited number of axial rotations in the XFEL focus. Signal-to-noise levels from individual diffraction patterns are enhanced using computational alignment and merging, giving patterns that are superior to those obtainable from synchrotron radiation sources. In conclusion, we anticipate that our approach will be a starting point for further investigations into unsolved structures of filaments and other weakly scattering objects.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; National Institutes of Health (NIH); European Research Council (ERC); Lundbeck Foundation
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; AC52-07NA27344; 1R01GM117342-01; 609920 AXSIS
OSTI ID:
1458736
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1774215; OSTI ID: 1999731
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-748306; LLNL-JRNL-845321; PII: 4116; TRN: US1901519
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 27 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (13)

Hierarchical Ordered Assembly of Genetically Modifiable Viruses into Nanoridge‐in‐Microridge Structures journal November 2019
Effect of the concentration of protein and nanoparticles on the structure of biohybrid nanocomposites journal November 2019
Interactions of aggregating peptides probed by IR-UV action spectroscopy journal January 2019
Imaging electron-density fluctuations by multidimensional X-ray photon-coincidence diffraction journal December 2018
An outlook on using serial femtosecond crystallography in drug discovery journal May 2019
Biological single-particle imaging using XFELs – towards the next resolution revolution journal October 2018
A fixed-target platform for serial femtosecond crystallography in a hydrated environment journal January 2020
Femtosecond X-ray coherent diffraction of aligned amyloid fibrils on low background graphene [Supplementary Data] dataset January 2018
Coherent diffractive imaging of microtubules using an X-ray laser text January 2019
A fixed-target platform for serial femtosecond crystallography in a hydrated environment text January 2020
Biological single-particle imaging using XFELs – towards the next resolution revolution text January 2018
Coherent diffractive imaging of microtubules using an X-ray laser journal June 2019
Three-dimensional double helical DNA structure directly revealed from its X-ray fiber diffraction pattern by iterative phase retrieval text January 2018

Linked Research (1)

Figures / Tables (7)

Fig. 1(p. 3)figure Fig. 1
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Fig. 3(p. 5)figure Fig. 3
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Fig. 5(p. 6)figure Fig. 5
Table 1(p. 6)table Table 1
Fig. 6(p. 7)figure Fig. 6

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