Sanishvili Ruslan, Fischetti Robert F
GM/CA@APS, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2017;1607:219-238. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7000-1_9.
Micro-diffraction tools for macromolecular crystallography, first developed at the end of 1990s and now an integral part of many synchrotron beamlines, enable some of the experiments which were not feasible just a decade or so ago. These include data collection from very small samples, just a few micrometers in size; from larger, but severely inhomogeneous samples; and from samples which are optically invisible. Improved micro-diffraction tools led to improved signal-to-noise ratio, to mitigation of radiation damage in some cases, and to better-designed diffraction experiments. Small, micron-scale beams can be attained in different ways and knowing the details of the implementation is important in order to design the diffraction experiment properly. Similarly, precision, reproducibility and stability of the goniometry, and caveats of detection systems need to be taken into account. Lastly, to make micro-diffraction widely applicable, the sophistication, robustness, and user-friendliness of these tools are just as important as the technical capabilities.
用于大分子晶体学的微衍射工具最早于20世纪90年代末开发，如今已成为许多同步加速器光束线不可或缺的一部分，使得一些在大约十年前还不可行的实验得以开展。这些实验包括从尺寸仅几微米的非常小的样品、从较大但严重不均匀的样品以及从光学上不可见的样品中收集数据。改进后的微衍射工具提高了信噪比，在某些情况下减轻了辐射损伤，并改进了衍射实验的设计。可以通过不同方式获得微米级的小光束，了解其实现细节对于正确设计衍射实验很重要。同样，测角仪的精度、可重复性和稳定性以及检测系统的注意事项也需要考虑。最后，为了使微衍射得到广泛应用，这些工具的复杂性、稳健性和用户友好性与技术能力同样重要。
