Data reduction from twinned RNA crystals

Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 1996 Jul 1;52(Pt 4):687-92. doi: 10.1107/S0907444996000327.

Abstract

Methods were developed to process diffraction data from epitaxically twinned crystals. Four programs for data reduction and two display programs were developed to augment the data-reduction program XDS [Kabsch (1988). J. Appl. Cryst. 21, 916-924]. The programs can be generalized for use with other data-reduction software that provides the user with a list of the reflections used to determine lattice constants and crystal orientation. LATTICE_VIEW generates a PDB file containing 'water molecules' at the reciprocal-space coordinates of the strong spots found in the initial data frames. The PDB file is visualized to identify spots that belong to the same lattice, obtain unit-cell dimensions for a lattice, and assess data quality. VECTOR_MATCH is used to find additional spots belonging to a lattice. ACCOUNT4 determines which spots have been processed by XDS. COMFORT discards reflections that are too close to a reflection in another lattice. The display programs provide useful visual information on the quality of the crystal orientations used. Data with an R(merge) of 7.1% at 2.4 A resolution were obtained from epitaxically twinned crystals of an RNA dodecamer. The data were of sufficient quality to solve the structure with a combination of molecular replacement and single isomorphous replacement methods.