Serial crystallography is a rapidly growing method that can yield structural insights from microcrystals that were previously considered to be too small to be useful in conventional X-ray crystallography. Here, conditions for growing microcrystals of the photosynthetic reaction centre of Blastochloris viridis within a lipidic cubic phase (LCP) crystallization matrix that employ a seeding protocol utilizing detergent-grown crystals with a different crystal packing are described. LCP microcrystals diffracted to 2.25 Å resolution when exposed to XFEL radiation, which is an improvement of 0.15 Å over previous microcrystal forms. Ubiquinone was incorporated into the LCP crystallization media and the resulting electron density within the mobile QB pocket is comparable to that of other cofactors within the structure. As such, LCP microcrystallization conditions will facilitate time-resolved diffraction studies of electron-transfer reactions to the mobile quinone, potentially allowing the observation of structural changes associated with the two electron-transfer reactions leading to complete reduction of the ubiquinone ligand.

中文翻译：

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光合反应中心的脂质立方相系列飞秒晶体结构。


连续晶体学是一种快速发展的方法，可以从微晶体中获得结构见解，而这些微晶体以前被认为太小而无法用于传统的 X 射线晶体学。在这里，描述了在脂质立方相 (LCP) 结晶基质内生长绿芽绿藻光合反应中心微晶的条件，该条件采用利用具有不同晶体包装的洗涤剂生长晶体的播种方案。当暴露于 XFEL 辐射时，LCP 微晶的衍射分辨率达到 2.25 Å，比之前的微晶形式提高了 0.15 Å。泛醌被纳入 LCP 结晶介质中，移动 QB 口袋内产生的电子密度与结构内其他辅助因子的电子密度相当。因此，LCP 微晶化条件将促进对移动醌的电子转移反应的时间分辨衍射研究，有可能允许观察与导致泛醌配体完全还原的两个电子转移反应相关的结构变化。