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Main Authors: You, Tong, Bielecki, Johan, Maia, Filipe R. N. C.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.16259
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author You, Tong
Bielecki, Johan
Maia, Filipe R. N. C.
author_facet You, Tong
Bielecki, Johan
Maia, Filipe R. N. C.
contents Single-particle imaging (SPI) using X-ray free-electron Lasers (XFELs) offers the potential to determine protein structures at high spatial and temporal resolutions without the need for crystallization or vitrification. However, the technique faces challenges due to weak diffraction signals from single proteins and significant background scattering from gases used for sample delivery. A recent observation of a diffraction pattern from an isolated GroEL protein complex had similar numbers of signal and background photons. Ongoing efforts aim to reduce the background created by sample delivery, with one approach replacing most of the used gas with helium. In this study, we investigate the effects of a potentially reduced background on the resolution limits for SPI of isolated proteins under different experiment conditions. As a test case, we used GroEL, and we used experimentally measured parameters for our simulations. We observe that background significantly impacts the achievable resolution, particularly when the signal strength is comparable to the background, and a background reduction would lead to a significant improvement in resolution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_16259
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impact of gas background on XFEL single-particle imaging
You, Tong
Bielecki, Johan
Maia, Filipe R. N. C.
Biomolecules
Biological Physics
Instrumentation and Detectors
Single-particle imaging (SPI) using X-ray free-electron Lasers (XFELs) offers the potential to determine protein structures at high spatial and temporal resolutions without the need for crystallization or vitrification. However, the technique faces challenges due to weak diffraction signals from single proteins and significant background scattering from gases used for sample delivery. A recent observation of a diffraction pattern from an isolated GroEL protein complex had similar numbers of signal and background photons. Ongoing efforts aim to reduce the background created by sample delivery, with one approach replacing most of the used gas with helium. In this study, we investigate the effects of a potentially reduced background on the resolution limits for SPI of isolated proteins under different experiment conditions. As a test case, we used GroEL, and we used experimentally measured parameters for our simulations. We observe that background significantly impacts the achievable resolution, particularly when the signal strength is comparable to the background, and a background reduction would lead to a significant improvement in resolution.
title Impact of gas background on XFEL single-particle imaging
topic Biomolecules
Biological Physics
Instrumentation and Detectors
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.16259