Toward fully fledged high-pressure macromolecular crystallography

Pressure allows one to explore the energy landscape and the various conformations of macromolecules. This might be one of the most interesting prospects of combining macromolecular crystallography (MX) with pressure perturbation. This paper presents innovations in high-pressure macromolecular crystallography (HPMX). A new-generation diamond anvil cell extends the technical feasibility of HPMX experiments up to about 2.5 GPa (depending on the sample). Thanks to the large useful aperture (82°) provided by this cell and special loading techniques (use of splinter and/or multiple samples), HPMX can now be more readily applied to crystals with very anisotropic habits and/or low-symmetry space groups, as demonstrated by analysis of diffraction data collected at 140 MPa from orthorhombic urate oxidase crystals. The behaviour of hexagonal crystals of an octanucleotide was investigated up to 2 GPa.

Download Full-text

Macromolecular crystallography at high pressure with pneumatic diamond anvil cells handled by a six-axis robotic arm

Journal of Applied Crystallography ◽

10.1107/s0021889810016146 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 762-768 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Eric Girard ◽

Roger Fourme ◽

Romain Ciurko ◽

Jacques Joly ◽

Florian Bouis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Pressure ◽

Robotic Arm ◽

Data Sets ◽

Macromolecular Crystallography ◽

Hen Egg White Lysozyme ◽

Egg White Lysozyme ◽

Diamond Anvil ◽

Hen Egg White ◽

Lysozyme Crystals ◽

Oscillation Method

A new pneumatic diamond anvil cell has been constructed, generating continuous pressure and temperature variations in the range 0–2.5 GPa and 293–393 K. The cell is designed mainly for high-pressure macromolecular crystallography and should facilitate pressure and temperature annealing of the sample. The analysis is reported of several diffraction data sets of tetragonal hen egg-white lysozyme crystals loaded either in the new cell or in a currently used membrane-based cell. These experiments were performed on beamline FIP-BM30A at the ESRF, Grenoble, a macromolecular crystallography beamline on a bending magnet. Cells were handled and automatically centred by a six-axis robotic arm that was used as a goniometer for data collection by the oscillation method.

Download Full-text

High pressure macromolecular crystallography: The 140-MPa crystal structure at 2.3 Å resolution of urate oxidase, a 135-kDa tetrameric assembly

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics ◽

10.1016/j.bbapap.2006.01.006 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1764 (3) ◽

pp. 391-397 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Nathalie Colloc'h ◽

Eric Girard ◽

Anne-Claire Dhaussy ◽

Richard Kahn ◽

Isabella Ascone ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Crystal Structure ◽

High Pressure ◽

Urate Oxidase ◽

Macromolecular Crystallography ◽

Tetrameric Assembly

Download Full-text

Group actions as applied to symmetry breaking in hexagonal crystals with space group P63/m

Canadian Journal of Physics ◽

10.1139/p84-160 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 62 (11) ◽

pp. 1152-1173

Author(s):

Rose M. Morra ◽

Robin L. Armstrong

Keyword(s):

Phase Transition ◽

Structural Phase ◽

Group Actions ◽

Order Parameters ◽

High Symmetry ◽

Space Group ◽

Space Groups ◽

Symmetry Space ◽

Low Symmetry ◽

Symmetry Space Group

A procedure is outlined that allows one to predict the possible low-symmetry space groups for a commensurate phase transition associated with a broken symmetry. By considering each irreducible representation of the high-symmetry space group and using a subduction procedure involving the theory of group actions, one may determine a complete set of representative order parameters and their little groups. Each little group can be identified as a possible space group for the low-symmetry phase. The method is used to deduce all possible broken symmetries of space group P63/m that can result from a phase transition associated with one of the symmetry points in the Brillouin zone. As a specific application of the resulting tables of possible order parameters and associated low-symmetry space groups, changes in the X nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrum due to structural phase transitions in hexagonal AX3 crystals with the high-symmetry space group P63/m are considered.

Download Full-text

The thermal conductivity of the Earth's core and implications for its thermal and compositional evolution

National Science Review ◽

10.1093/nsr/nwaa303 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kenji Ohta ◽

Kei Hirose

Keyword(s):

Thermal Conductivity ◽

High Pressure ◽

Thermal History ◽

Diamond Anvil Cell ◽

High Pressures ◽

Iron Alloys ◽

Compositional Evolution ◽

The Earth ◽

Diamond Anvil ◽

High Pressures And Temperatures

Abstract Precise determinations of the thermal conductivity of iron alloys at high pressures and temperatures are essential for understanding the thermal history and dynamics of the metallic cores of the Earth. We review relevant high-pressure experiments using a diamond-anvil cell and discuss implications of high core conductivity for its thermal and compositional evolution.

Download Full-text

High‐field, high‐pressure, and low‐temperature magneto‐optical apparatus using a diamond anvil cell

Review of Scientific Instruments ◽

10.1063/1.1143840 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 63 (12) ◽

pp. 5764-5766 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Y. Matsuda ◽

N. Kuroda ◽

Y. Nishina

Keyword(s):

High Pressure ◽

Low Temperature ◽

High Field ◽

Diamond Anvil Cell ◽

Diamond Anvil

Download Full-text

PHASE TRANSITION IN LAYERED PEROVSKITE LIKE MANGANATE Ca3Mn2O7 UNDER HIGH PRESSURE

International Journal of Modern Physics B ◽

10.1142/s0217979201007117 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 15 (18) ◽

pp. 2491-2497 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J. L. ZHU ◽

L. C. CHEN ◽

R. C. YU ◽

F. Y. LI ◽

J. LIU ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Crystal Structure ◽

High Pressure ◽

Diamond Anvil Cell ◽

The Other ◽

Layered Perovskite ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

Two Phase ◽

X Ray ◽

Diamond Anvil

In situ high pressure energy dispersive X-ray diffraction measurements on layered perovskite-like manganate Ca 3 Mn 2 O 7 under pressures up to 35 GPa have been performed by using diamond anvil cell with synchrotron radiation. The results show that the structure of layered perovskite-like manganate Ca 3 Mn 2 O 7 is unstable under pressure due to the easy compression of NaCl-type blocks. The structure of Ca 3 Mn 2 O 7 underwent two phase transitions under pressures in the range of 0~35 GPa. One was at about 1.3 GPa with the crystal structure changing from tetragonal to orthorhombic. The other was at about 9.5 GPa with the crystal structure changing from orthorhombic back to another tetragonal.

Download Full-text