The quality of diffraction data obtained using silver and molybdenum microsources has been compared for six model compounds with a wide range of absorption factors. The experiments were performed on two 30 W air-cooled Incoatec IµS microfocus sources with multilayer optics mounted on a Bruker D8 goniometer with a SMART APEX II CCD detector. All data were analysed, processed and refined using standard Bruker software. The results show that Ag Kα radiation can be beneficial when heavy elements are involved. A numerical absorption correction based on the positions and indices of the crystal faces is shown to be of limited use for the highly focused microsource beams, presumably because the assumption that the crystal is completely bathed in a (top-hat profile) beam of uniform intensity is no longer valid. Fortunately the empirical corrections implemented in SADABS, although originally intended as a correction for absorption, also correct rather well for the variations in the effective volume of the crystal irradiated. In three of the cases studied (two Ag and one Mo) the final SHELXL R1 against all data after application of empirical corrections implemented in SADABS was below 1%. Since such corrections are designed to optimize the agreement of the intensities of equivalent reflections with different paths through the crystal but the same Bragg 2θ angles, a further correction is required for the 2θ dependence of the absorption. For this, SADABS uses the transmission factor of a spherical crystal with a user-defined value of μr (where μ is the linear absorption coefficient and r is the effective radius of the crystal); the best results are obtained when r is biased towards the smallest crystal dimension. The results presented here suggest that the IUCr publication requirement that a numerical absorption correction must be applied for strongly absorbing crystals is in need of revision.

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Comparison of silver and molybdenum microfocus X-ray sources for single-crystal structure determination

Structure of ubiquitin refined at 1.8 A resolution.

X-ray diffraction at four temperatures from 220 to 300 K coupled with crystallographic refinement yields the mean-square displacements and conformational potentials of all 1,261 non-hydrogen atoms of metmyoglobin. The results are interpreted to indicate a condensed core around the haem, semi-liquid regions towards the outside and a possible pathway for ligands. It is concluded that X-ray diffraction can provide the spatial distribution of the dynamic features of a protein.

Temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction as a probe of protein structural dynamics

High-resolution three-dimensional structure of horse heart cytochrome c.

Structure of calmodulin refined at 2.2 A resolution.

An extension of Furnas's method is described. The variation of intensity of an axial reflection as the crystal is rotated about the goniometer axis is used to give a curve of relative transmission T against azimuthal angle ϕ for the corresponding reciprocal lattice level. Transmission coefficients for any general reflexion hkl are then given approximately by T(hkl) = [T(ϕinc) + T(ϕret)]/2 where ϕinc and ϕret are the azimuthal angles of the incident and reflected beams. Equations are derived for (ϕinc and ϕret and the accuracy of the method is discussed.

F. S. Mathews

Papers

A semi-empirical method of absorption correction