Jinhu Song

New paradigm for macromolecular crystallography experiments at SSRL: automated crystal screening and remote data collection

Through the combination of robust mechanized experimental hardware and a flexible control system with an intuitive user interface, SSRL researchers have screened over 200 000 biological crystals for diffraction quality in an automated fashion. Three quarters of SSRL researchers are using these data-collection tools from remote locations.

Goniometer-based femtosecond crystallography with X-ray free electron lasers

Significance The extremely short and bright X-ray pulses produced by X-ray free-electron lasers unlock new opportunities in crystallography-based structural biology research. Efficient methods to deliver crystalline material are necessary due to damage or destruction of the crystal by the X-ray pulse. Crystals for the first experiments were 5 µm or smaller in size, delivered by a liquid injector. We describe a highly automated goniometer-based approach, compatible with crystals of larger and varied sizes, and accessible at cryogenic or ambient temperatures. These methods, coupled with improvements in data-processing algorithms, have resulted in high-resolution structures, unadulterated by the effects of radiation exposure, from only 100 to 1,000 diffraction images. The emerging method of femtosecond crystallography (FX) may extend the diffraction resolution accessible from small radiation-sensitive crystals and provides a means to determine catalytically accurate structures of acutely radiation-sensitive metalloenzymes. Automated goniometer-based instrumentation developed for use at the Linac Coherent Light Source enabled efficient and flexible FX experiments to be performed on a variety of sample types. In the case of rod-shaped Cpl hydrogenase crystals, only five crystals and about 30 min of beam time were used to obtain the 125 still diffraction patterns used to produce a 1.6-Å resolution electron density map. For smaller crystals, high-density grids were used to increase sample throughput; 930 myoglobin crystals mounted at random orientation inside 32 grids were exposed, demonstrating the utility of this approach. Screening results from cryocooled crystals of β2-adrenoreceptor and an RNA polymerase II complex indicate the potential to extend the diffraction resolution obtainable from very radiation-sensitive samples beyond that possible with undulator-based synchrotron sources.

Mapping the conformational landscape of a dynamic enzyme by multitemperature and XFEL crystallography

Determining the interconverting conformations of dynamic proteins in atomic detail is a major challenge for structural biology. Conformational heterogeneity in the active site of the dynamic enzyme cyclophilin A (CypA) has been previously linked to its catalytic function, but the extent to which the different conformations of these residues are correlated is unclear. Here we compare the conformational ensembles of CypA by multitemperature synchrotron crystallography and fixed-target X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) crystallography. The diffraction-before-destruction nature of XFEL experiments provides a radiation-damage-free view of the functionally important alternative conformations of CypA, confirming earlier synchrotron-based results. We monitored the temperature dependences of these alternative conformations with eight synchrotron datasets spanning 100-310 K. Multiconformer models show that many alternative conformations in CypA are populated only at 240 K and above, yet others remain populated or become populated at 180 K and below. These results point to a complex evolution of conformational heterogeneity between 180-–240 K that involves both thermal deactivation and solvent-driven arrest of protein motions in the crystal. The lack of a single shared conformational response to temperature within the dynamic active-site network provides evidence for a conformation shuffling model, in which exchange between rotamer states of a large aromatic ring in the middle of the network shifts the conformational ensemble for the other residues in the network. Together, our multitemperature analyses and XFEL data motivate a new generation of temperature- and time-resolved experiments to structurally characterize the dynamic underpinnings of protein function. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07574.001

High-density grids for efficient data collection from multiple crystals

A high-density sample mount has been developed for efficient goniometer-based sample delivery at synchrotron and XFEL sources.

The Stanford Automated Mounter: pushing the limits of sample exchange at the SSRL macromolecular crystallography beamlines

The Structural Molecular Biology group at SSRL has upgraded its crystal mounting robot (SAM) to enable a sample pin exchange time of approximately 25 s during automated screening of samples.

Mapping the Conformational Landscape of a Dynamic Enzyme by XFEL and Multitemperature Crystallography

Determining the interconverting conformations of dynamic proteins in atomic detail is a major challenge for structural biology. Conformational heterogeneity in the active site of the dynamic enzyme cyclophilin A (CypA) has been previously linked to its catalytic function, but the extent to which the different conformations of these residues are correlated is unclear. Here we compare the conformational ensembles of CypA by multitemperature synchrotron crystallography and fixed-target X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) crystallography. The “diffraction-before-destruction” nature of XFEL experiments provides a radiation-damage-free view of the functionally important alternative conformations of CypA, confirming earlier synchrotron-based results. We monitored the temperature dependences of these alternative conformations with eight synchrotron datasets spanning 100-310 K. Multiconformer models show that many alternative conformations in CypA are populated only at 240 K and above, yet others remain populated or become populated at 180 K and below. These results point to a complex evolution of conformational heterogeneity between 180-240 K that involves both thermal deactivation and solvent-driven arrest of protein motions in the crystal. The lack of a single shared conformational response to temperature within the dynamic active-site network provides evidence for a conformation shuffling model, in which exchange between rotamer states for a large aromatic ring in the middle of the network shifts the conformational ensemble for the other residues in the network. Together, our multitemperature analyses and XFEL data motivate a new generation of temperature- and time-resolved experiments to structurally characterize the dynamic underpinnings of protein function.

Automated grid-based XFEL diffraction studies of single macromolecular crystals

A major challenge of structural investigations of metalloproteins at synchrotrons is the damaging effects of radiation exposure. Even small X-ray doses can reduce or initiate reactions at metal centers modifying the active site. For example, in-situ visible absorption spectroscopy measurements have demonstrated that the heme/copper active site in oxidized ba3 cytochrome oxidase (ba3) is compromised during a single X-ray diffraction exposure. The use of ultrashort X-ray pulses at LCLS provides a means to measure high resolution diffraction before these damage processes occur. To this end, experiments were conducted at LCLS using large multiple crystals (> 50 μm) of ba3, hydrogenase and myoglobin. Crystals were mounted in ‘grids’ or loops and flash frozen. The grids hold up to 75 crystals in known locations and are compatible with the Stanford Automounter used to exchange them. Following a semiautomated grid alignment procedure, a fully automated routine was used to position each crystal and collect a series of diffraction images and the Blu-Ice/DCS control system that coordinated with the LCLS EPICS system and XPP DAQ software. Single femtosecond X-ray pulses produced a ‘damage free’ still diffraction image from each crystal. To provide additional information about crystal orientation, a series of pseudo-oscillation images were collected +/5.5 degrees spanning the orientation of the still image. For each one degree oscillation image the crystal was exposed to 120 attenuated X-ray pulses. A hard X-ray spectrometer was used to measure the energy spectrum of each individual X-ray pulse. The details and results of these experiments will be presented.