Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, IBS, Grenoble, France.
Institut Laue Langevin, Grenoble, France.
Methods Mol Biol. 2020;2168:147-175. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0724-4_7.
Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) is a powerful tool for studying the structure of solubilized membrane proteins. It allows describing the general dimension of the membrane protein , evidence conformational changes, and may provide a low-resolution structure at the nm resolution range. This is because SANS can discriminate between the membrane protein and its amphiphilic partner by specific deuteration of the partners and of the buffer. This chapter was written to offer to a scientist aiming to describe a membrane protein structure the basic tools to consider a SANS experiment. It presents the general principle of contrast variation and a bibliographic survey of experimental strategies used for membrane proteins, some basic theoretical background, and a succinct description of the principles of analysis, of the instrumental and sample requirement, and of the practical steps, prior to the experiments, during the experiments and for data analysis.
小角中子散射（SANS）是研究溶解在膜中的蛋白质结构的有力工具。它可以描述膜蛋白的一般尺寸，提供构象变化的证据，并可能在纳米分辨率范围内提供低分辨率结构。这是因为 SANS 可以通过特定的氘化来区分膜蛋白与其两亲性伴侣以及缓冲液。本章旨在为试图描述膜蛋白结构的科学家提供考虑 SANS 实验的基本工具。它介绍了对比变化的一般原理，并对用于膜蛋白的实验策略进行了文献综述，提供了一些基本的理论背景，以及对分析原理、仪器和样品要求以及实验前、实验中和数据分析过程中的实际步骤的简洁描述。
