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Small is beautiful: protein micro-crystallography

Nature Structural Biology volume 5, pages 634–637 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Focused X-ray beams from third generation synchrotron sources allow the possibility of data collection from previously unusable protein microcrystals of only a few microns in size.

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Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the ESRF microfocus beamline ID13.
Figure 2
Figure 3: a, A bacteriorhodopsin crystal (about 60 μm across) frozen in a loop.
Figure 4: Diffraction pattern from a single 10 μm thick dragline fiber of the orbspinning spider Nephila clavipes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank members of the EMBL/ESRF Joint Structural Biology Group for technical help on the ESRF microfocus beamline, ID13 and E. Pebay-Peyroula and E. Landau for the images in Fig. 3.

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Author notes

  1. Andreas Bram & Christian Riekel

    Present address: Siemens Microelectronics Center GmbH & Co. OHG, Koenigsbruecker Str. 180, D-1099, Dresden, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Grenoble Outstation, co ILL, 156X, Grenoble, F38042, Cedex 9 , France

    Stephen Cusack & Anastassis Perrakis

  2. the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP220, Grenoble, F38043, Cedex 9, France

    Hassan Belrhali, Andreas Bram, Manfred Burghammer & Christian Riekel

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  1. Stephen Cusack
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Cusack, S., Belrhali, H., Bram, A. et al. Small is beautiful: protein micro-crystallography. Nat Struct Mol Biol 5 (Suppl 8), 634–637 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/1325

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