Title: Solvent minimization induces preferential orientation and crystal clustering in serial micro-crystallography on micro-meshes, in situ plates and on a movable crystal conveyor belt

Abstract

X-ray diffraction data were obtained at the National Synchrotron Light Source from insulin and lysozyme crystals that were densely deposited on three types of surfaces suitable for serial micro-crystallography: MiTeGen MicroMeshes™, Greiner Bio-One Ltdin situmicro-plates, and a moving kapton crystal conveyor belt that is used to deliver crystals directly into the X-ray beam. 6° wedges of data were taken from ~100 crystals mounted on each material, and these individual data sets were merged to form nine complete data sets (six from insulin crystals and three from lysozyme crystals). Insulin crystals have a parallelepiped habit with an extended flat face that preferentially aligned with the mounting surfaces, impacting the data collection strategy and the design of the serial crystallography apparatus. Lysozyme crystals had a cuboidal habit and showed no preferential orientation. Preferential orientation occluded regions of reciprocal space when the X-ray beam was incident normal to the data-collection medium surface, requiring a second pass of data collection with the apparatus inclined away from the orthogonal. In addition, crystals measuring less than 20 µm were observed to clump together into clusters of crystals. Clustering required that the X-ray beam be adjusted to match the crystal size to prevent overlapping diffraction patterns. Nomore » additional problems were encountered with the serial crystallography strategy of combining small randomly oriented wedges of data from a large number of specimens. Lastly, high-quality data able to support a realistic molecular replacement solution were readily obtained from both crystal types using all three serial crystallography strategies.« less

Authors:

Soares, Alexei S. ^[1]; Mullen, Jeffrey D. ^[2]; Parekh, Ruchi M. ^[3]; McCarthy, Grace S. ^[1]; Roessler, Christian G. ^[1]; Jackimowicz, Rick ^[1]; Skinner, John M. ^[1]; Orville, Allen M. ^[1]; Allaire, Marc ^[1]; Sweet, Robert M. ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
2. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States) Dept. of Physics
3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Suffolk County Community College, Selden, NY (United States)

Publication Date:

Thu Oct 09 00:00:00 EDT 2014

Research Org.:

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

OSTI Identifier:

1229355

Report Number(s):

BNL-111430-2015-JA
Journal ID: ISSN 1600-5775; JSYRES

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC00112704; 11- 008; P41RR012408; P41GM103473

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Online); Journal Volume: 21; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 1600-5775

Publisher:

International Union of Crystallography

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; in situ X-ray data collection; crystallography; acoustic droplet ejection; serial crystallography