Serial femtosecond crystallography of G protein-coupled receptors

Science. 2013 Dec 20;342(6165):1521-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1244142.

Abstract

X-ray crystallography of G protein-coupled receptors and other membrane proteins is hampered by difficulties associated with growing sufficiently large crystals that withstand radiation damage and yield high-resolution data at synchrotron sources. We used an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) with individual 50-femtosecond-duration x-ray pulses to minimize radiation damage and obtained a high-resolution room-temperature structure of a human serotonin receptor using sub-10-micrometer microcrystals grown in a membrane mimetic matrix known as lipidic cubic phase. Compared with the structure solved by using traditional microcrystallography from cryo-cooled crystals of about two orders of magnitude larger volume, the room-temperature XFEL structure displays a distinct distribution of thermal motions and conformations of residues that likely more accurately represent the receptor structure and dynamics in a cellular environment.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Crystallography, X-Ray / instrumentation*
  • Crystallography, X-Ray / methods*
  • Humans
  • Lasers
  • Protein Conformation
  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2B / chemistry
  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2B / radiation effects
  • Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / chemistry*
  • Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / radiation effects
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2B
  • Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled

Associated data

  • PDB/4NC3