Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany.
Nat Methods. 2014 Sep;11(9):923-6. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3067. Epub 2014 Aug 10.
We describe a method to measure ultrafast protein structural changes using time-resolved wide-angle X-ray scattering at an X-ray free-electron laser. We demonstrated this approach using multiphoton excitation of the Blastochloris viridis photosynthetic reaction center, observing an ultrafast global conformational change that arises within picoseconds and precedes the propagation of heat through the protein. This provides direct structural evidence for a 'protein quake': the hypothesis that proteins rapidly dissipate energy through quake-like structural motions.
我们描述了一种使用自由电子激光的时间分辨广角 X 射线散射来测量超快蛋白质结构变化的方法。我们使用 Blastochloris viridis 光合作用反应中心的多光子激发验证了该方法，观察到了一个超快的全局构象变化，该变化在皮秒内发生，并先于热量在蛋白质中的传播。这为“蛋白质震动”提供了直接的结构证据：该假说认为蛋白质通过类似震动的结构运动迅速耗散能量。
