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Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) enables the determination of the room‐temperature crystal structure of macromolecules, as well as providing time‐resolved molecular dynamics data in pump–probe experiments. Fixed‐target SFX (FT‐SFX) can minimize sample consumption and physical effects on crystals during sample delivery. In FT‐SFX studies, having a sample holder that can stably fix crystal samples is one of the key elements required for efficient data collection. Hence, development of sample holders from new materials capable of supporting various crystal sizes and shapes may expand the applications of FT‐SFX. Here, a viscous‐media‐based crystal support in a sample holder for FT‐SFX is introduced. Crystal samples were embedded in viscous media, namely gelatin and agarose, which were enclosed in a polyimide film. In the vertically placed sample holder, 10–15%(w/v) viscous gelatin and 1–4%(w/v) agarose gel stably supported crystals between two polyimide films, thereby preventing the crystals from descending owing to gravity. Using this method, FT‐SFX experiments were performed with glucose isomerase and lysozyme embedded in gelatin and agarose, respectively. The room‐temperature crystal structures of glucose isomerase and lysozyme were successfully determined at 1.75 and 1.80 Å resolutions, respectively. The glucose isomerase and lysozyme diffraction analyses were not impeded by excessive background scattering from the viscous media. This method is useful for delivering crystal samples of various sizes and shapes in FT‐SFX experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial crystallography (SX) is an innovative technology in structural biology that enables the visualization of the molecular dynamics of macromolecules at room temperature. SX experiments always require a considerable amount of effort to deliver a crystal sample to the X‐ray interaction point continuously and reliably. Here, a sample‐delivery method using a capillary and a delivery medium is introduced. The crystals embedded in the delivery medium can pass through the capillary tube, which is aligned with the X‐ray beam, at very low flow rates without requiring elaborate delivery techniques, drastically reducing sample consumption. In serial millisecond crystallography using a viscous medium via a capillary, crystals of lysozyme embedded in agarose, which produce an unstable injection stream at atmospheric pressure, and crystals of glucose isomerase embedded in gelatin, which is known to be problematic for open‐extruder operation, were stably delivered at a flow rate of 100 nl min−1. The room‐temperature crystal structures of lysozyme and glucose isomerase were successfully determined at 1.85 and 1.70 Å resolutions, respectively. This simple but highly efficient sample‐delivery method can allow researchers to deliver crystals precisely to an X‐ray beam in SX experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial crystallography (SX) technique using synchrotron X-ray allows the visualization of room-temperature crystal structures with low-dose data collection as well as time-resolved molecular dynamics. In an SX experiment, delivery of numerous crystals for X-ray interaction, in a serial manner, is very important. Fixed-target scanning approach has the advantage of dramatically minimizing sample consumption as well as any physical damage to crystal sample, compared to other sample delivery methods. Here, we introduce the simple approach of fixed-target serial synchrotron crystallography (FT-SSX) using nylon mesh and enclosed film (NAM)-based sample holder. The NAM-based sample holder consisted of X-ray-transparent nylon-mesh and polyimide film, attached to a magnetic base. This sample holder was mounted to a goniometer head on macromolecular crystallography beamline, and translated along vertical and horizontal directions for raster scanning by the goniometer. Diffraction data were collected in two raster scanning approaches: (i) 100 ms X-ray exposure and 0.011° oscillation at each scan point and (ii) 500 ms X-ray exposure and 0.222° oscillation at each scan point. Using this approach, we determined the room-temperature crystal structures of lysozyme and glucose isomerase at 1.5–2.0 Å resolution. The sample holder produced negligible X-ray background scattering for data processing. Therefore, the new approach provided an opportunity to perform FT-SSX with high accessibility using macromolecular crystallography beamlines at synchrotron without any special equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]