Dynamical Scattering in Electron Diffraction of wet Protein
Crystals
The significance of dynamical scattering effects remains the major question in the structural analysis by electron diffraction of protein crystals preserved in the hydrated state. In the few cases (single layers of purple membrane and 400-600 Å thick catalase crystals examined at 100 kV acceleration voltage) where electron-diffraction patterns were used quantitatively, dynamical scattering effects were considered unimportant on the basis of a comparison with x-ray intensities. The kinematical treatment is usually justified by the thinness of the crystal. A theoretical investigation by Ho et al. using Cowley-Moodie multislice formulation of dynamical scattering theory and cytochrome b5as the test object2 suggests that kinematical analysis of electron diffraction data with 100-keV electrons would not likely be valid for specimen thickness of 300 Å or more. We have chosen to work with electron diffraction patterns obtained from actual wet protein crystals (rat hemoglobin crystals of thickness range 1000 to 2500 Å) at 200 and 1000 kV and to analyze these for dynamical effects.