I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Richard J.
Gildea
,
James
Beilsten-Edmands
,
Danny
Axford
,
Sam
Horrell
,
Pierre
Aller
,
James
Sandy
,
Juan
Sanchez-Weatherby
,
C. David
Owen
,
Petra
Lukacik
,
Claire
Strain-Damerell
,
Robin L.
Owen
,
Martin A.
Walsh
,
Graeme
Winter
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[26986, 27088]
Open Access
Abstract: In macromolecular crystallography, radiation damage limits the amount of data that can be collected from a single crystal. It is often necessary to merge data sets from multiple crystals; for example, small-wedge data collections from micro-crystals, in situ room-temperature data collections and data collection from membrane proteins in lipidic mesophases. Whilst the indexing and integration of individual data sets may be relatively straightforward with existing software, merging multiple data sets from small wedges presents new challenges. The identification of a consensus symmetry can be problematic, particularly in the presence of a potential indexing ambiguity. Furthermore, the presence of non-isomorphous or poor-quality data sets may reduce the overall quality of the final merged data set. To facilitate and help to optimize the scaling and merging of multiple data sets, a new program, xia2.multiplex, has been developed which takes data sets individually integrated with DIALS and performs symmetry analysis, scaling and merging of multi-crystal data sets. xia2.multiplex also performs analysis of various pathologies that typically affect multi-crystal data sets, including non-isomorphism, radiation damage and preferential orientation. After the description of a number of use cases, the benefit of xia2.multiplex is demonstrated within a wider autoprocessing framework in facilitating a multi-crystal experiment collected as part of in situ room-temperature fragment-screening experiments on the SARS-CoV-2 main protease.
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Jun 2022
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I03-Macromolecular Crystallography
I04-1-Macromolecular Crystallography (fixed wavelength)
I04-Macromolecular Crystallography
I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Patrick
Rabe
,
Jos J. A. G.
Kamps
,
Kyle D.
Sutherlin
,
James D. S.
Linyard
,
Pierre
Aller
,
Cindy C.
Pham
,
Mikako
Makita
,
Ian
Clifton
,
Michael A.
Mcdonough
,
Thomas M.
Leissing
,
Denis
Shutin
,
Pauline A.
Lang
,
Agata
Butryn
,
Jurgen
Brem
,
Sheraz
Gul
,
Franklin D.
Fuller
,
In-Sik
Kim
,
Mun Hon
Cheah
,
Thomas
Fransson
,
Asmit
Bhowmick
,
Iris D.
Young
,
Lee
O'Riordan
,
Aaron S.
Brewster
,
Ilaria
Pettinati
,
Margaret
Doyle
,
Yasumasa
Joti
,
Shigeki
Owada
,
Kensuke
Tono
,
Alexander
Batyuk
,
Mark S.
Hunter
,
Roberto
Alonso-Mori
,
Uwe
Bergmann
,
Robin L.
Owen
,
Nicholas K.
Sauter
,
Timothy D. W.
Claridge
,
Carol V.
Robinson
,
Vittal K.
Yachandra
,
Junko
Yano
,
Jan F.
Kern
,
Allen M.
Orville
,
Christopher J.
Schofield
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[23459, 19458]
Open Access
Abstract: Isopenicillin N synthase (IPNS) catalyzes the unique reaction of L-δ-(α-aminoadipoyl)-L-cysteinyl-D-valine (ACV) with dioxygen giving isopenicillin N (IPN), the precursor of all natural penicillins and cephalosporins. X-ray free-electron laser studies including time-resolved crystallography and emission spectroscopy reveal how reaction of IPNS:Fe(II):ACV with dioxygen to yield an Fe(III) superoxide causes differences in active site volume and unexpected conformational changes that propagate to structurally remote regions. Combined with solution studies, the results reveal the importance of protein dynamics in regulating intermediate conformations during conversion of ACV to IPN. The results have implications for catalysis by multiple IPNS-related oxygenases, including those involved in the human hypoxic response, and highlight the power of serial femtosecond crystallography to provide insight into long-range enzyme dynamics during reactions presently impossible for nonprotein catalysts.
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Aug 2021
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I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Agata
Butryn
,
Philipp S.
Simon
,
Pierre
Aller
,
Philip
Hinchliffe
,
Ramzi N.
Massad
,
Gabriel
Leen
,
Catherine L.
Tooke
,
Isabel
Bogacz
,
In-Sik
Kim
,
Asmit
Bhowmick
,
Aaron S.
Brewster
,
Nicholas E.
Devenish
,
Jurgen
Brem
,
Jos J. A. G.
Kamps
,
Pauline A.
Lang
,
Patrick
Rabe
,
Danny
Axford
,
John H.
Beale
,
Bradley
Davy
,
Ali
Ebrahim
,
Julien
Orlans
,
Selina L. S.
Storm
,
Tiankun
Zhou
,
Shigeki
Owada
,
Rie
Tanaka
,
Kensuke
Tono
,
Gwyndaf
Evans
,
Robin L.
Owen
,
Frances A.
Houle
,
Nicholas K.
Sauter
,
Christopher J.
Schofield
,
James
Spencer
,
Vittal K.
Yachandra
,
Junko
Yano
,
Jan F.
Kern
,
Allen M.
Orville
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19458, 25260]
Open Access
Abstract: Serial femtosecond crystallography has opened up many new opportunities in structural biology. In recent years, several approaches employing light-inducible systems have emerged to enable time-resolved experiments that reveal protein dynamics at high atomic and temporal resolutions. However, very few enzymes are light-dependent, whereas macromolecules requiring ligand diffusion into an active site are ubiquitous. In this work we present a drop-on-drop sample delivery system that enables the study of enzyme-catalyzed reactions in microcrystal slurries. The system delivers ligand solutions in bursts of multiple picoliter-sized drops on top of a larger crystal-containing drop inducing turbulent mixing and transports the mixture to the X-ray interaction region with temporal resolution. We demonstrate mixing using fluorescent dyes, numerical simulations and time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography, which show rapid ligand diffusion through microdroplets. The drop-on-drop method has the potential to be widely applicable to serial crystallography studies, particularly of enzyme reactions with small molecule substrates.
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Jul 2021
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I04-Macromolecular Crystallography
I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Julien
Orlans
,
Carole
Vincent-Monegat
,
Isabelle
Rahioui
,
Catherine
Sivignon
,
Agata
Butryn
,
Laurent
Soulère
,
Anna
Zaidman-Remy
,
Allen M.
Orville
,
Abdelaziz
Heddi
,
Pierre
Aller
,
Pedro
Da Silva
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19737, 19458, 23571]
Open Access
Abstract: Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) are ubiquitous among animals and play pivotal functions in insect immunity. Non-catalytic PGRPs are involved in the activation of immune pathways by binding to the peptidoglycan (PGN), whereas amidase PGRPs are capable of cleaving the PGN into non-immunogenic compounds. Drosophila PGRP-LB belongs to the amidase PGRPs and downregulates the immune deficiency (IMD) pathway by cleaving meso-2,6-diaminopimelic (meso-DAP or DAP)-type PGN. While the recognition process is well analyzed for the non-catalytic PGRPs, little is known about the enzymatic mechanism for the amidase PGRPs, despite their essential function in immune homeostasis. Here, we analyzed the specific activity of different isoforms of Drosophila PGRP-LB towards various PGN substrates to understand their specificity and role in Drosophila immunity. We show that these isoforms have similar activity towards the different compounds. To analyze the mechanism of the amidase activity, we performed site directed mutagenesis and solved the X-ray structures of wild-type Drosophila PGRP-LB and its mutants, with one of these structures presenting a protein complexed with the tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), a muropeptide derived from the PGN. Only the Y78F mutation abolished the PGN cleavage while other mutations reduced the activity solely. Together, our findings suggest the dynamic role of the residue Y78 in the amidase mechanism by nucleophilic attack through a water molecule to the carbonyl group of the amide function destabilized by Zn2+.
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May 2021
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Abstract: Macromolecular crystallography (MX) leverages the methods of physics and the language of chemistry to reveal fundamental insights into biology. Often beautifully artistic images present MX results to support profound functional hypotheses that are vital to entire life science research community. Over the past several decades, synchrotrons around the world have been the workhorses for X-ray diffraction data collection at many highly automated beamlines. The newest tools include X-ray-free electron lasers (XFELs) located at facilities in the USA, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, and Germany that deliver about nine orders of magnitude higher brightness in discrete femtosecond long pulses. At each of these facilities, new serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) strategies exploit slurries of micron-size crystals by rapidly delivering individual crystals into the XFEL X-ray interaction region, from which one diffraction pattern is collected per crystal before it is destroyed by the intense X-ray pulse. Relatively simple adaptions to SFX methods produce time-resolved data collection strategies wherein reactions are triggered by visible light illumination or by chemical diffusion/mixing. Thus, XFELs provide new opportunities for high temporal and spatial resolution studies of systems engaged in function at physiological temperature. In this chapter, we summarize various issues related to microcrystal slurry preparation, sample delivery into the X-ray interaction region, and some emerging strategies for time-resolved SFX data collection.
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May 2021
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I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Patrick
Rabe
,
John
Beale
,
Agata
Butryn
,
Pierre
Aller
,
Anna
Dirr
,
Pauline A.
Lang
,
Danny N.
Axford
,
Stephen
Carr
,
Thomas M.
Leissing
,
Michael A.
Mcdonough
,
Bradley
Davy
,
Ali
Ebrahim
,
Julien
Orlans
,
Selina L. S.
Storm
,
Allen M.
Orville
,
Christopher J.
Schofield
,
Robin L.
Owen
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19458]
Open Access
Abstract: Cryogenic X-ray diffraction is a powerful tool for crystallographic studies on enzymes including oxygenases and oxidases. Amongst the benefits that cryo-conditions (usually employing a nitrogen cryo-stream at 100 K) enable, is data collection of dioxygen-sensitive samples. Although not strictly anaerobic, at low temperatures the vitreous ice conditions severely restrict O2 diffusion into and/or through the protein crystal. Cryo-conditions limit chemical reactivity, including reactions that require significant conformational changes. By contrast, data collection at room temperature imposes fewer restrictions on diffusion and reactivity; room-temperature serial methods are thus becoming common at synchrotrons and XFELs. However, maintaining an anaerobic environment for dioxygen-dependent enzymes has not been explored for serial room-temperature data collection at synchrotron light sources. This work describes a methodology that employs an adaptation of the `sheet-on-sheet' sample mount, which is suitable for the low-dose room-temperature data collection of anaerobic samples at synchrotron light sources. The method is characterized by easy sample preparation in an anaerobic glovebox, gentle handling of crystals, low sample consumption and preservation of a localized anaerobic environment over the timescale of the experiment (<5 min). The utility of the method is highlighted by studies with three X-ray-radiation-sensitive Fe(II)-containing model enzymes: the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent L-arginine hydroxylase VioC and the DNA repair enzyme AlkB, as well as the oxidase isopenicillin N synthase (IPNS), which is involved in the biosynthesis of all penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics.
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Sep 2020
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I04-Macromolecular Crystallography
I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[14449, 16818]
Open Access
Abstract: In this article, a new approach to experimental phasing for macromolecular crystallography (MX) at synchrotrons is introduced and described for the first time. It makes use of automated robotics applied to a multi-crystal framework in which human intervention is reduced to a minimum. Hundreds of samples are automatically soaked in heavy-atom solutions, using a Labcyte Inc. Echo 550 Liquid Handler, in a highly controlled and optimized fashion in order to generate derivatized and isomorphous crystals. Partial data sets obtained on MX beamlines using an in situ setup for data collection are processed with the aim of producing good-quality anomalous signal leading to successful experimental phasing.
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Aug 2020
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Vivek
Srinivas
,
Rahul
Banerjee
,
Hugo
Lebrette
,
Jason C.
Jones
,
Oskar
Aurelius
,
In-Sik
Kim
,
Cindy C.
Pham
,
Sheraz
Gul
,
Kyle
Sutherlin
,
Asmit
Bhowmick
,
Juliane
John
,
Esra
Bozkurt
,
Thomas
Fransson
,
Pierre
Aller
,
Agata
Butryn
,
Isabel
Bogacz
,
Philipp Stefan
Simon
,
Stephen
Keable
,
Alexander
Britz
,
Kensuke
Tono
,
Kyung-Sook
Kim
,
Sang-Youn
Park
,
Sang-Jae
Lee
,
Jaehyun
Park
,
Roberto
Alonso-Mori
,
Franklin
Fuller
,
Alexander
Batyuk
,
Aaron S.
Brewster
,
Uwe
Bergmann
,
Nicholas
Sauter
,
Allen M.
Orville
,
Vittal K.
Yachandra
,
Junko
Yano
,
John D.
Lipscomb
,
Jan F.
Kern
,
Martin
Högbom
Abstract: Soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) is a multicomponent metalloenzyme that catalyzes the conversion of methane to methanol at ambient temperature using a nonheme, oxygen-bridged dinuclear iron cluster in the active site. Structural changes in the hydroxylase component (sMMOH) containing the diiron cluster caused by complex formation with a regulatory component (MMOB) and by iron reduction are important for the regulation of O2 activation and substrate hydroxylation. Structural studies of metalloenzymes using traditional synchrotron-based X-ray crystallography are often complicated by partial X-ray-induced photoreduction of the metal center, thereby obviating determination of the structure of pure oxidation states. Here microcrystals of the sMMOH:MMOB complex from Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b were serially exposed to X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) pulses, where the ≦35 fs duration of exposure of an individual crystal yields diffraction data before photoreduction-induced structural changes can manifest. Merging diffraction patterns obtained from thousands of crystals generates radiation damage free, 1.95 Å resolution crystal structures for the fully oxidized and fully reduced states of the sMMOH:MMOB complex for the first time. The results provide new insight into the manner by which the diiron cluster and the active site environment are reorganized by the regulatory protein component in order to enhance the steps of oxygen activation and methane oxidation. This study also emphasizes the value of XFEL and serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) methods for investigating the structures of metalloenzymes with radiation sensitive metal active sites.
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Jul 2020
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I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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E. Sethe
Burgie
,
Jonathan A.
Clinger
,
Mitchell D.
Miller
,
Aaron S.
Brewster
,
Pierre
Aller
,
Agata
Butryn
,
Franklin D.
Fuller
,
Sheraz
Gul
,
Iris D.
Young
,
Cindy C.
Pham
,
In-Sik
Kim
,
Asmit
Bhowmick
,
Lee J.
O’riordan
,
Kyle D.
Sutherlin
,
Joshua V.
Heinemann
,
Alexander
Batyuk
,
Roberto
Alonso-Mori
,
Mark S.
Hunter
,
Jason E.
Koglin
,
Junko
Yano
,
Vittal K.
Yachandra
,
Nicholas K.
Sauter
,
Aina E.
Cohen
,
Jan
Kern
,
Allen M.
Orville
,
George N.
Phillips
,
Richard D.
Vierstra
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19458]
Open Access
Abstract: A major barrier to defining the structural intermediates that arise during the reversible photointerconversion of phytochromes between their biologically inactive and active states has been the lack of crystals that faithfully undergo this transition within the crystal lattice. Here, we describe a crystalline form of the cyclic GMP phosphodiesterases/adenylyl cyclase/FhlA (GAF) domain from the cyanobacteriochrome PixJ in Thermosynechococcus elongatus assembled with phycocyanobilin that permits reversible photoconversion between the blue light-absorbing Pb and green light-absorbing Pg states, as well as thermal reversion of Pg back to Pb. The X-ray crystallographic structure of Pb matches previous models, including autocatalytic conversion of phycocyanobilin to phycoviolobilin upon binding and its tandem thioether linkage to the GAF domain. Cryocrystallography at 150 K, which compared diffraction data from a single crystal as Pb or after irradiation with blue light, detected photoconversion product(s) based on Fobs − Fobs difference maps that were consistent with rotation of the bonds connecting pyrrole rings C and D. Further spectroscopic analyses showed that phycoviolobilin is susceptible to X-ray radiation damage, especially as Pg, during single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses, which could complicate fine mapping of the various intermediate states. Fortunately, we found that PixJ crystals are amenable to serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) analyses using X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). As proof of principle, we solved by room temperature SFX the GAF domain structure of Pb to 1.55-Å resolution, which was strongly congruent with synchrotron-based models. Analysis of these crystals by SFX should now enable structural characterization of the early events that drive phytochrome photoconversion.
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Dec 2019
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I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[14493, 19458]
Open Access
Abstract: Efficient sample delivery is an essential aspect of serial crystallography at both synchrotrons and X-ray free-electron lasers. Rastering fixed target chips through the X-ray beam is an efficient method for serial delivery from the perspectives of both sample consumption and beam time usage. Here, an approach for loading fixed targets using acoustic drop ejection is presented that does not compromise crystal quality, can reduce sample consumption by more than an order of magnitude and allows serial diffraction to be collected from a larger proportion of the crystals in the slurry.
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Sep 2019
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