Otálora F, Gavira J A, Capelle B, García-Ruiz J M
Laboratorio de Estudios Cristalográficos, -Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, Av. Fuentenueva s/n, Granada 18002,
Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 1999 Mar;55(Pt 3):650-5. doi: 10.1107/s0907444998015005.
The rocking curve of protein crystals contains a lot of useful information concerning crystal quality, most of which is lost owing to the superimposition of spurious features appearing in these fragile materials after growth, during handling and mounting. To minimize such data spoiling, an experimental setup to perform in situ X-ray diffraction experiments during crystal growth has been designed. The setup, which includes video observation to allow the correlation of crystal shape, size and growth rate with X-ray data, has been used to assess the mosaicity of tetragonal lysozyme crystals during crystal growth. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of diffraction peaks collected from these crystals changes during the growth process as a (directly proportional) response to the growth rates and the different development of different domain blocks. These changes in the domain distribution and FWHM with time involve a 'zonation' of the crystals, which show very different rocking curves in different parts of their volume. The rocking curves recorded in situ from growing crystals are easier to understand than those from crystals that have suffered even minor handling.
蛋白质晶体的摇摆曲线包含许多有关晶体质量的有用信息，其中大部分由于在晶体生长后、处理和安装过程中这些易碎材料中出现的虚假特征的叠加而丢失。为了尽量减少此类数据损坏，设计了一种在晶体生长过程中进行原位X射线衍射实验的实验装置。该装置包括视频观察，以便将晶体形状、尺寸和生长速率与X射线数据相关联，已用于评估四方溶菌酶晶体在晶体生长过程中的镶嵌性。从这些晶体收集的衍射峰的半高宽（FWHM）在生长过程中随着对生长速率和不同畴块的不同发育的（成正比）响应而变化。畴分布和FWHM随时间的这些变化涉及晶体的“分区”，其在其体积的不同部分显示出非常不同的摇摆曲线。从生长中的晶体原位记录的摇摆曲线比那些即使经过轻微处理的晶体的摇摆曲线更容易理解。
