Kikhney Alexey G, Svergun Dmitri I
European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Hamburg Outstation, Notkestr. 85, Geb. 25a, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Hamburg Outstation, Notkestr. 85, Geb. 25a, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
FEBS Lett. 2015 Sep 14;589(19 Pt A):2570-7. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2015.08.027. Epub 2015 Aug 29.
Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a biophysical method to study the overall shape and structural transitions of biological macromolecules in solution. SAXS provides low resolution information on the shape, conformation and assembly state of proteins, nucleic acids and various macromolecular complexes. The technique also offers powerful means for the quantitative analysis of flexible systems, including intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Here, the basic principles of SAXS are presented, and profits and pitfalls of the characterization of multidomain flexible proteins and IDPs using SAXS are discussed from the practical point of view. Examples of the synergistic use of SAXS with high resolution methods like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), as well as other experimental and in silico techniques to characterize completely, or partially unstructured proteins, are presented.
小角X射线散射（SAXS）是一种用于研究溶液中生物大分子整体形状和结构转变的生物物理方法。SAXS提供有关蛋白质、核酸和各种大分子复合物的形状、构象和组装状态的低分辨率信息。该技术还为包括内在无序蛋白（IDP）在内的柔性系统的定量分析提供了有力手段。本文介绍了SAXS的基本原理，并从实际角度讨论了使用SAXS表征多结构域柔性蛋白和IDP的优点和陷阱。还展示了SAXS与X射线晶体学和核磁共振（NMR）等高分辨率方法协同使用的例子，以及其他用于完全或部分表征非结构化蛋白质的实验和计算机技术。
