Statistically correcting dynamical electron scattering improves the refinement of protein nanocrystals, including charge refinement of coordinated metals.

ABSTRACT: Electron diffraction allows protein structure determination when only nanosized crystals are available. Nevertheless, multiple elastic (or dynamical) scattering, which is prominent in electron diffraction, is a concern. Current methods for modeling dynamical scattering by multi-slice or Bloch wave approaches are not suitable for protein crystals because they are not designed to cope with large molecules. Here, dynamical scattering of nanocrystals of insulin, thermolysin and thaumatin was limited by collecting data from thin crystals. To accurately measure the weak diffraction signal from the few unit cells in the thin crystals, a low-noise hybrid pixel Timepix electron-counting detector was used. The remaining dynamical component was further reduced in refinement using a likelihood-based c

SUBMITTER: Blum TB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7787111 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature