Joe P. J. Chen

Diffraction by nanocrystals

X-ray femtosecond nanocrystallography is a new, potentially powerful technique for imaging biological macromolecules that uses ensemble-averaged measurements of diffraction of x-ray free-electron laser pulses from nanocrytalline specimens. Nanocrystals have some diffraction characteristics that are distinct from those of macroscopic crystals, due to the presence of different kinds of unit cell in the crystal and of truncated unit cells on the crystal surface. Expressions are derived for diffraction by nanocrystals with variable and incomplete unit cells, averaged over a distribution of crystal sizes and shapes. The diffraction contains differently modulated Bragg components that are due to interference effects within and between the full and incomplete unit cells. Estimates are obtained for the relative magnitudes of the components. The nature of the diffraction is illustrated by two-dimensional simulations. Implications for molecular imaging are discussed.

Aspects of direct phasing in femtosecond nanocrystallography

X-ray free-electron laser diffraction patterns from protein nanocrystals provide information on the diffracted amplitudes between the Bragg reflections, offering the possibility of direct phase retrieval without the use of ancillary experimental data. Proposals for implementing direct phase retrieval are reviewed. These approaches are limited by the signal-to-noise levels in the data and the presence of different and incomplete unit cells in the nanocrystals. The effects of low signal to noise can be ameliorated by appropriate selection of the intensity data samples that are used. The effects of incomplete unit cells may be small in some cases, and a unique solution is likely if there are four or fewer molecular orientations in the unit cell.

Direct phasing in femtosecond nanocrystallography. I. Diffraction characteristics

X-ray free-electron lasers solve a number of difficulties in protein crystallography by providing intense but ultra-short pulses of X-rays, allowing collection of useful diffraction data from nanocrystals. Whereas the diffraction from large crystals corresponds only to samples of the Fourier amplitude of the molecular transform at the Bragg peaks, diffraction from very small crystals allows measurement of the diffraction amplitudes between the Bragg samples. Although highly attenuated, these additional samples offer the possibility of iterative phase retrieval without the use of ancillary experimental data [Spence et al. (2011). Opt. Express, 19, 2866-2873]. This first of a series of two papers examines in detail the characteristics of diffraction patterns from collections of nanocrystals, estimation of the molecular transform and the noise characteristics of the measurements. The second paper [Chen et al. (2014). Acta Cryst. A70, 154-161] examines iterative phase-retrieval methods for reconstructing molecular structures in the presence of the variable noise levels in such data.

Direct phasing in femtosecond nanocrystallography. II. Phase retrieval

X-ray free-electron laser diffraction patterns from protein nanocrystals provide information on the diffracted amplitudes between the Bragg reflections, offering the possibility of direct phase retrieval without the use of ancillary experimental diffraction data [Spence et al. (2011). Opt. Express, 19, 2866-2873]. The estimated continuous transform is highly noisy however [Chen et al. (2014). Acta Cryst. A70, 143-153]. This second of a series of two papers describes a data-selection strategy to ameliorate the effects of the high noise levels and the subsequent use of iterative phase-retrieval algorithms to reconstruct the electron density. Simulation results show that employing such a strategy increases the noise levels that can be tolerated.

Phase retrieval for multiple objects from their averaged diffraction

The problem of reconstructing multiple objects from the average of their diffracted intensities is investigated. Reconstruction feasibility (uniqueness) depends on the number of objects, their support shapes and dimensionality, and an appropriately calculated constraint ratio. For objects with sufficiently different supports, and a favorable constraint ratio, the reconstruction problem has a unique solution. For objects with identical supports, there can be multiple solutions, even with a favorable constraint ratio. However, positivity of the objects and noncentrosymmetry of the support reduce the number of multiple solutions, and a unique solution may exist with a favorable constraint ratio. An iterative projection based algorithm to reconstruct the individual objects is described. The efficacy of the reconstruction algorithm and the uniqueness results are demonstrated by simulation.

Flow-aligned, single-shot fiber diffraction using a femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser.

A major goal for X‐ray free‐electron laser (XFEL) based science is to elucidate structures of biological molecules without the need for crystals. Filament systems may provide some of the first single macromolecular structures elucidated by XFEL radiation, since they contain one‐dimensional translational symmetry and thereby occupy the diffraction intensity region between the extremes of crystals and single molecules. Here, we demonstrate flow alignment of as few as 100 filaments (Escherichia coli pili, F‐actin, and amyloid fibrils), which when intersected by femtosecond X‐ray pulses result in diffraction patterns similar to those obtained from classical fiber diffraction studies. We also determine that F‐actin can be flow‐aligned to a disorientation of approximately 5 degrees. Using this XFEL‐based technique, we determine that gelsolin amyloids are comprised of stacked β‐strands running perpendicular to the filament axis, and that a range of order from fibrillar to crystalline is discernable for individual α‐synuclein amyloids.

Phase retrieval for multiple objects

The problem of reconstructing multiple objects from the average of their diffracted intensities is considered. Three cases of technical interest are studied. The first is where the incoherent average is measured over a single object that adopts a number of positions described by a symmetry group. The second is where the average is over a small number of distinct objects. The third is where the average is over a set of unit cells that can occur in an ensemble of nanocrystals as a result of different edge terminations. As a result of some redundancy in the multi-dimensional phase problem, a unique solution can be obtained for these problems under some circumstances. Uniqueness is characterised using the constraint ratio. Iterative projection algorithms can be adapted to accommodate these cases and example simulated reconstructions are presented.

Phase retrieval in femtosecond x-ray nanocrystallography

Protein X-ray crystallography is a method for determining the 3-dimensional structures of large biological molecules arranged in regular arrays inside a crystal. Samples of the Fourier magnitude of the molecular charge density can be measured from the amplitudes of the scattered X-rays but the determination of the Fourier phases requires chemical modification to the sample and collection of additional data. There is thus a need for a direct digital phasing method that does not require modified specimens. The diffraction from very small crystals allows for a finer sampling of the diffraction amplitude and although highly attenuated, these additional samples offer the possibility of iterative phase retrieval without the use of ancillary experimental data. Following on from a previous study [6], we examine in detail the noise characteristics of finite crystal diffraction and propose a data selection strategy to improve 3-dimensional reconstructions of the molecular charge density using iterative phase retrieval algorithms. Simulation results verify that higher noise levels can indeed be tolerated by employing such a strategy to precondition the data.

Reconstruction of an object from diffraction intensities averaged over multiple object clusters

A projection operator is derived for use in iterative phase retrieval algorithms when the Fourier intensity data is an average over the intensity from multiple clusters of identical objects. The projection operator is a generalization of the magnitude projection for conventional phase retrieval for a single object, and is applicable when the relative orientations and positions of the objects within the clusters are known. Simulations demonstrate that an iterative projection algorithm equipped with this new projection operator can successfully reconstruct an object from the averaged Fourier intensities from multiple clusters, each containing multiple copies of the object.

Image reconstruction in serial femtosecond nanocrystallography using x-ray free-electron lasers

Serial femtosecond nanocrystallography (SFX) is a form of x-ray coherent diffraction imaging that utilises a stream of tiny nanocrystals of the biological assembly under study, in contrast to the larger crystals used in conventional x-ray crystallography using conventional x-ray synchrotron x-ray sources. Nanocrystallography utilises the extremely brief and intense x-ray pulses that are obtained from an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). A key advantage is that some biological macromolecules, such as membrane proteins for example, do not easily form large crystals, but spontaneously form nanocrystals. There is therefore an opportunity for structure determination for biological molecules that are inaccessible using conventional x-ray crystallography. Nanocrystallography introduces a number of interesting image reconstruction problems. Weak diffraction patterns are recorded from hundreds of thousands of nancocrystals in unknown orientations, and these data have to be assembled and merged into a 3D intensity dataset. The diffracted intensities can also be affected by the surface structure of the crystals that can contain incomplete unit cells. Furthermore, the small crystal size means that there is potentially access to diffraction information between the crystalline Bragg peaks. With this information, phase retrieval is possible without resorting to the collection of additional experimental data as is necessary in conventional protein crystallography. We report recent work on the diffraction characteristics of nanocrystals and the resulting reconstruction algorithms.