Top left - Schematic design of goniometer set-up; top right - crystals and beam relationship; bottom left - xyanalase II structure; bottom right - 2F_o-F_c density map

Protein crystallography with a micrometre-sized synchrotron-radiation beam

Acta Cryst. (2008). D64, 158-166 [doi:10.1107/S090744490705812X]

Recent advances in instrumentation at the microfocus beamline (ID13) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility allowed a protein microcrystallography experiment with a focused synchrotron-radiation beam of 1 micron. High-resolution diffraction patterns of xylanase II were obtained from 20 μm³ crystal volumes with a flux density of 3 × 10¹⁰ photons/sec/μm² at the sample. In spite of the high irradiation dose, a 1.5 Å resolution map for a xylanase II structure was obtained with no evidence of radiation damage. This result opens many new opportunities in protein microcrystallography.