scholarly journals Serial Electron Diffraction Data Processing With diffractem and CrystFEL

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bücker ◽  
Pascal Hogan-Lamarre ◽  
R. J. Dwayne Miller
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Data Processing ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
X Ray ◽  
X Ray Crystallography ◽  
Level Of Automation ◽  
Rotation Method ◽  
High Level

Serial electron diffraction (SerialED) is an emerging technique, which applies the snapshot data-collection mode of serial X-ray crystallography to three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D Electron Diffraction), forgoing the conventional rotation method. Similarly to serial X-ray crystallography, this approach leads to almost complete absence of radiation damage effects even for the most sensitive samples, and allows for a high level of automation. However, SerialED also necessitates new techniques of data processing, which combine existing pipelines for rotation electron diffraction and serial X-ray crystallography with some more particular solutions for challenges arising in SerialED specifically. Here, we introduce our analysis pipeline for SerialED data, and its implementation using the CrystFEL and diffractem program packages. Detailed examples are provided in extensive supplementary code.

scholarly journals Quasicrystal approximants solved by Rotation Electron Diffraction (RED)

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C1195-C1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Hovmöller ◽  
Devinder SINGH ◽  
Wei Wan ◽  
Yifeng Yun ◽  
Benjamin Grushko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Data Processing ◽  
Single Crystal ◽  
Crystal Structures ◽  
Reciprocal Lattice ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
X Ray ◽  
X Ray Crystallography ◽  
3D Electron

We have developed single crystal electron diffraction for powder-sized samples, i.e. < 0.1μm in all dimensions. Complete 3D electron diffraction is collected by Rotation Electron Diffraction (RED) in about one hour. Data processing takes another hour. The crystal structures are solved by standard crystallographic techniques. X-ray crystallography requires crystals several micrometers big. For nanometer sized crystals, electron diffraction and electron microscopy (EM) are the only possibilities. Modern transmission EMs are equipped with the two things that are necessary for turning them into automatic single crystal diffractometers; they have CCD cameras and all lenses and the sample stage are computer-controlled. Two methods have been developed for collecting complete (except for a missing cone) 3D electron diffraction data; the Rotation Electron Diffraction (RED) [1] and Automated Electron Diffraction Tomography (ADT) by Kolb et al. [2]. Because of the very strong interaction between electrons and matter, an electron diffraction pattern with visible spots is obtained in one second from a submicron sized crystal in the EM. By collecting 1000-2000 electron diffraction patterns, a complete 3D data set is obtained. The geometry in RED is analogous to the rotation method in X-ray crystallography; the sample is rotated continuously along one rotation axis. The data processing results in a list of typically over 1000 reflections with h,k,l and Intensity. The unit cell is typically obtained correctly to within 1%. Space group determination is done as in X-ray crystallography from systematically absent reflections, but special care must be taken because occasionally multiple electron diffraction can give rise to very strong forbidden reflections. At +/-60° tilt with 0.1° steps, a complete data collection will be some 1200 frames. With one second exposures this takes about one hour. There is no need to align the crystal orientation. The reciprocal lattice can be rotated and displayed at any direction of view. Sections such as hk0, hk1, hk2, h0l and so on can easily be cut out and displayed. We have solved over 50 crystal structures by RED in one year. These include the most complex zeolites ever solved and quasicrystal approximants, such as the pseudo-decagonal approximants PD2 [3] and PD1 in AlCoNi. Observed and calculated sections of reciprocal space (cut at 1.0Å) are shown in Fig. 1. Notice the 10-fold symmetry of strong reflections.

A complex pseudo-decagonal quasicrystal approximant, Al37(Co,Ni)15.5, solved by rotation electron diffraction

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devinder Singh ◽  
Yifeng Yun ◽  
Wei Wan ◽  
Benjamin Grushko ◽  
Xiaodong Zou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Single Crystal ◽  
Diffraction Data ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
Dimensional Electron ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Diffraction Patterns

Electron diffraction is a complementary technique to single-crystal X-ray diffraction and powder X-ray diffraction for structure solution of unknown crystals. Crystals too small to be studied by single-crystal X-ray diffraction or too complex to be solved by powder X-ray diffraction can be studied by electron diffraction. The main drawbacks of electron diffraction have been the difficulties in collecting complete three-dimensional electron diffraction data by conventional electron diffraction methods and the very time-consuming data collection. In addition, the intensities of electron diffraction suffer from dynamical scattering. Recently, a new electron diffraction method, rotation electron diffraction (RED), was developed, which can overcome the drawbacks and reduce dynamical effects. A complete three-dimensional electron diffraction data set can be collected from a sub-micrometre-sized single crystal in less than 2 h. Here the RED method is applied forab initiostructure determination of an unknown complex intermetallic phase, the pseudo-decagonal (PD) quasicrystal approximant Al37.0(Co,Ni)15.5, denoted as PD2. RED shows that the crystal is F-centered, witha= 46.4,b= 64.6,c= 8.2 Å. However, as with other approximants in the PD series, the reflections with oddlindices are much weaker than those withleven, so it was decided to first solve the PD2 structure in the smaller, primitive unit cell. The basic structure of PD2 with unit-cell parametersa= 23.2,b= 32.3,c= 4.1 Å and space groupPnmmhas been solved in the present study. The structure withc= 8.2 Å will be taken up in the near future. The basic structure contains 55 unique atoms (17 Co/Ni and 38 Al) and is one of the most complex structures solved by electron diffraction. PD2 is built of characteristic 2 nm wheel clusters with fivefold rotational symmetry, which agrees with results from high-resolution electron microscopy images. Simulated electron diffraction patterns for the structure model are in good agreement with the experimental electron diffraction patterns obtained by RED.

Structural insights intoM2O–Al2O3–WO3(M= Na, K) system by electron diffraction tomography

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iryna Andrusenko ◽  
Yaşar Krysiak ◽  
Enrico Mugnaioli ◽  
Tatiana E. Gorelik ◽  
Diana Nihtianova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Large Cell ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
Diffraction Tomography ◽  
Structure Investigation ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Cell Parameters ◽  
Wide Range

TheM2O–Al2O3–WO3(M= alkaline metals) system has attracted the attention of the scientific community because some of its members showed potential applications as single crystalline media for tunable solid-state lasers. These materials behave as promising laser host materials due to their high and continuous transparency in the wide range of the near-IR region. A systematic investigation of these phases is nonetheless hampered because it is impossible to produce large crystals and only in a few cases a pure synthetic product can be achieved. Despite substantial advances in X-ray powder diffraction methods, structure investigation on nanoscale is still challenging, especially when the sample is polycrystalline and the structures are affected by pseudo-symmetry. Electron diffraction has the advantage of collecting data from single nanoscopic crystals, but it is frequently limited by incompleteness and dynamical effects. Automated diffraction tomography (ADT) recently emerged as an alternative approach able to collect more complete three-dimensional electron diffraction data and at the same time to significantly reduce dynamical scattering. ADT data have been shown to be suitable forabinitiostructure solution of phases with large cell parameters, and for detecting pseudo-symmetry that was undetected in X-ray powder data. In this work we present the structure investigation of two hitherto undetermined compounds, K5Al(W3O11)2and NaAl(WO4)2, by a combination of electron diffraction tomography and precession electron diffraction. We also stress how electron diffraction tomography can be used to obtain direct information about symmetry and pseudo-symmetry for nanocrystalline phases, even when available only in polyphasic mixtures.

scholarly journals A Medipix quantum area detector allows rotation electron diffraction data collection from submicrometre three-dimensional protein crystals

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 1223-1230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Nederlof ◽  
Eric van Genderen ◽  
Yao-Wang Li ◽  
Jan Pieter Abrahams
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Diffraction Data ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Protein Crystal ◽  
Protein Crystals ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
Single Shot ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Area Detector

When protein crystals are submicrometre-sized, X-ray radiation damage precludes conventional diffraction data collection. For crystals that are of the order of 100 nm in size, at best only single-shot diffraction patterns can be collected and rotation data collection has not been possible, irrespective of the diffraction technique used. Here, it is shown that at a very low electron dose (at most 0.1 e− Å−2), a Medipix2 quantum area detector is sufficiently sensitive to allow the collection of a 30-frame rotation series of 200 keV electron-diffraction data from a single ∼100 nm thick protein crystal. A highly parallel 200 keV electron beam (λ = 0.025 Å) allowed observation of the curvature of the Ewald sphere at low resolution, indicating a combined mosaic spread/beam divergence of at most 0.4°. This result shows that volumes of crystal with low mosaicity can be pinpointed in electron diffraction. It is also shown that strategies and data-analysis software (MOSFLMandSCALA) from X-ray protein crystallography can be used in principle for analysing electron-diffraction data from three-dimensional nanocrystals of proteins.

Instrumentation in X-ray crystallography: Past, present and future

2001 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. W. Arndt
Keyword(s):  
Synchrotron Radiation ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Macromolecular Crystallography ◽  
Personal Account ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
X Ray ◽  
X Ray Crystallography ◽  
Density Maps ◽  
Structure Determinations ◽  
Complete Automation

This paper deals with the very great changes in X–ray crystallographic techniques and apparatus over a period of approximately the last 60 years. This is not a general history; it is a personal account of the developments with which I have been directly involved; it is, therefore, biased towards apparatus developments in the field of macromolecular crystallography in which I have worked during most of this period. The bias needs little excuse: many of the new techniques of X–ray crystallography were devised initially for large–molecule structure determinations which had most need of such advances in order to be feasible at all. Among them are the uses of computers in calculating electron density maps, the construction of automatic diffractometers and microdensitometers, the introduction of rotating-anode X–ray generators and of microfocus X–ray tubes, the development of electronic X–ray area detectors, the pioneering work on the use of synchrotron radiation for diffraction studies, the building of three–dimensional atomic models by computer and the complete automation of the mounting, selection and alignment of crystals on the diffractometer.

Accurate Recording and Measurement of Electron Diffraction Data in Structural and Difference Fourier Studies of Proteins

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 407-417
Author(s):  
Kenneth H. Downing ◽  
Huilin Li
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Diffraction Data ◽  
Drug Binding ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
Mathematical Basis ◽  
X Ray ◽  
X Ray Crystallography ◽  
High Resolution Images ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Difference Fourier

AbstractMany of the techniques that have been developed in X-ray crystallography are being applied in electron crystallographic studies of proteins. Electron crystallography has the advantage of measuring structure factor phases directly from high resolution images with an accuracy substantially higher than is common in X-ray crystallography. However, electron diffraction amplitudes are often not as precise as those obtained in X-ray work. We discuss here some approaches to maximizing the reliability of the diffraction amplitudes through choice of exposure and data processing schemes. With accurate measurement of diffraction data, Fourier difference methods can be used in electron crystallographic studies of small, localized changes of proteins that exist in two-dimensional crystals. The mathematical basis for the power of these methods in detecting small changes is reviewed. We then discuss several issues related to optimizing the quality of the diffraction data and derive an expression for the best exposure for recording diffraction patterns. An application of Fourier difference maps in localizing drug binding sites on the protein tubulin is discussed.

scholarly journals A Workflow for Protein Structure Determination from Thin Crystal Lamella by Micro-Electron Diffraction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma V. Beale ◽  
David G. Waterman ◽  
Corey Hecksel ◽  
Jason van Rooyen ◽  
James B. Gilchrist ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Data Processing ◽  
Structure Determination ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Protein Structure Determination ◽  
Proteinase K ◽  
Protein Crystal ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
X Ray Crystallography

AbstractMicro-Electron Diffraction (MicroED) has recently emerged as a powerful method for the analysis of biological structures at atomic resolution. This technique has been largely limited to protein nanocrystals which grow either as needles or plates measuring only a few hundred nanometres in thickness. Furthermore, traditional microED data processing uses established X-ray crystallography software that is not optimised for handling compound effects that are unique to electron diffraction data. Here, we present an integrated workflow for microED, from sample preparation by cryo-focused ion beam milling, through data collection with a standard Ceta-D detector, to data processing using the DIALS software suite, thus enabling routine atomic structure determination of protein crystals of any size and shape using microED. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the workflow by determining the structure of proteinase K to 2.0 Å resolution and show the advantage of using protein crystal lamellae over nanocrystals.

Crystal structure analysis of a star-shaped triazine compound: a combination of single-crystal three-dimensional electron diffraction and powder X-ray diffraction

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana E. Gorelik ◽  
Jacco van de Streek ◽  
Herbert Meier ◽  
Lars Andernach ◽  
Till Opatz
Keyword(s):  
Crystal Structure ◽  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Single Crystal ◽  
Diffraction Data ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
Dimensional Electron ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Diffraction Profile ◽  
X Ray

The solid-state structure of star-shaped 2,4,6-tris{(E)-2-[4-(dimethylamino)-phenyl]ethenyl}-1,3,5-triazine is determined from a powder sample by exploiting the respective strengths of single-crystal three-dimensional electron diffraction and powder X-ray diffraction data. The unit-cell parameters were determined from single crystal electron diffraction data. Using this information, the powder X-ray diffraction data were indexed, and the crystal structure was determined from the powder diffraction profile. The compound crystallizes in a noncentrosymmetric space group,P212121. The molecular conformation in the crystal structure was used to calculate the molecular dipole moment of 3.22 Debye, which enables the material to show nonlinear optical effects.

3-D reconstruction of molecular shape from microcrystal thin sections

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 748-749
Author(s):  
S. Cusack ◽  
J.-C. Jésior
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Molecular Shape ◽  
Biological Molecules ◽  
Fourier Space ◽  
Single Particles ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Standard Methods ◽  
X Ray ◽  
X Ray Crystallography ◽  
Dimensional Reconstruction

Three-dimensional reconstruction techniques using electron microscopy have been principally developed for application to 2-D arrays (i.e. monolayers) of biological molecules and symmetrical single particles (e.g. helical viruses). However many biological molecules that crystallise form multilayered microcrystals which are unsuitable for study by either the standard methods of 3-D reconstruction or, because of their size, by X-ray crystallography. The grid sectioning technique enables a number of different projections of such microcrystals to be obtained in well defined directions (e.g. parallel to crystal axes) and poses the problem of how best these projections can be used to reconstruct the packing and shape of the molecules forming the microcrystal.Given sufficient projections there may be enough information to do a crystallographic reconstruction in Fourier space. We however have considered the situation where only a limited number of projections are available, as for example in the case of catalase platelets where three orthogonal and two diagonal projections have been obtained (Fig. 1).

Dynamical Scattering in Electron Diffraction of wet Protein Crystals

1980 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 42-43
Author(s):  
B. B. Chang ◽  
D. F. Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Scattering Theory ◽  
Protein Crystals ◽  
Electron Diffraction Data ◽  
Specimen Thickness ◽  
Major Question ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Scattering Effects ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Acceleration Voltage

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.

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