issue contents

Journal logoSTRUCTURAL
BIOLOGY
ISSN: 2059-7983

May 2021 issue

Highlighted illustration

Cover illustration: A portrait of Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier by Louis Boilly. The importance of the Fourier transform as a fundamental tool for crystallography is well known, this and the implications of Fourier's work in other scientific fields are explored in an essay by Cele Abad-Zapatero [(2021), Acta Cryst. D77, 703–711]. Image reproduced with the permission of the Archives of the Académie des Sciences, Paris.

CCP-EM


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Coma-corrected single-particle data collection on a JEOL CRYO ARM 300 is described. It is shown that data collection with a throughput exceeding 6000 images per day and an image shift of up to 7 µm produces a reconstruction of apoferritin to a resolution of 1.7 Å.

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Sample thickness is a key parameter in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy. Determining the sample thickness before data acquisition allows the targeting of optimal areas and the maximization of the data-output quality of single-particle cryo-electron microscopy sessions. Scripts and optimized workflows for EPU and SerialEM are presented and are available as open source.

research papers


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A data-processing pipeline to solve structures from tomograms of protein nanocrystals is presented and validated using simulated crystals. The robustness of this workflow to radiation damage is assessed to investigate optimal data-collection strategies.

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Crystal structures of apo and cAMP-bound SAV1707, a member of the UPF0173 metal-dependent hydrolase family from Staphylococcus aureus, were determined at 2.05 and 1.55 Å resolution, respectively, providing functional and structural insights into the catalytic mechanism of SAV1707.

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It is demonstrated that there is a large amount of local strain in subgrains of glucose isomerase crystals even though the overall crystal quality is rather high, as shown by clear equal-thickness fringes in X-ray topography. By controlling the local strain in subgrains, the resistance of subgrains of protein crystals to radiation damage could be improved, enabling the collection of X-ray diffraction data sets with high diffractivity.

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ATP and client peptides interact allosterically to effect the molecular-chaperone activity via which Hsp70 proteins promote protein folding. Here, two DnaK–ATP structures are described: one with implications for a transition in which peptides are released upon the binding of ATP and one with relevance for the rebinding and capture of client polypeptides.


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A highly flexible, integrated system for preparing samples for serial synchrotron crystallography at room and cryogenic temperatures is described and evaluated. The system is compatible with the existing infrastructure for high-throughput crystallography at synchrotrons and addresses major issues in maximizing data quantity and quality from large numbers of small crystals.


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The correlation of structure factors calculated from a random-atom model for reflections s and w is defined by the values of the Fourier transform of the atomic coordinate distribution taken at the 2s, 2w, sw and s + w nodes and may be large for neighbouring nodes of a reciprocal-space lattice.


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The crystal structures of hemoglobin from two flightless birds, ostrich at 2.22 Å resolution and turkey in a monoclinic form at 1.66 Å resolution and in an orthorhombic form at 1.39 Å resolution, are reported and their sequential and structural features are interpreted.

essays


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The legacy of J.-B. J. Fourier, a pioneer Egyptologist and premier mathematician and physicist of his time, in crystallography and many other scientific fields is reviewed in the context of nearly two centuries having passed since his landmark publication on The Analytical Theory of Heat (1822). The legacy of Fourier's work in crystallography and many other scientific fields is reviewed with an emphasis on current developments in the study of nonequilibrium thermodynamics.
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