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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Micro-crystal electron diffraction (MicroED) combines the efficiency of electron scattering with diffraction to allow structure determination from nano-sized crystalline samples in cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM). It has been used to solve structures of a diverse set of biomolecules and materials, in some cases to sub-atomic resolution. However, little is known about the damaging effects of the electron beam on samples during such measurements. We assess global and site-specific damage from electron radiation on nanocrystals of proteinase K and of a prion hepta-peptide and find that the dynamics of electron-induced damage follow well-established trends observed in X-ray crystallography. Metal ions are perturbed, disulfide bonds are broken, and acidic side chains are decarboxylated while the diffracted intensities decay exponentially with increasing exposure. A better understanding of radiation damage in MicroED improves our assessment and processing of all types of cryo-EM data.

Analysis of Global and Site-Specific Radiation Damage in Cryo-EM.,Hattne J, Shi D, Glynn C, Zee CT, Gallagher-Jones M, Martynowycz MW, Rodriguez JA, Gonen T Structure. 2018 May 1;26(5):759-766.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.str.2018.03.021. Epub 2018, Apr 26. PMID:29706530^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.