Description
Phytochromes are a family of photoreceptors that control light responses of plants, fungi and bacteria. A sequence of structural changes, which is not yet fully understood, leads to activation of an output domain. Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) can potentially

Phytochromes are a family of photoreceptors that control light responses of plants, fungi and bacteria. A sequence of structural changes, which is not yet fully understood, leads to activation of an output domain. Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) can potentially shine light on these conformational changes. Here we report the room temperature crystal structure of the chromophore-binding domains of the Deinococcus radiodurans phytochrome at 2.1 Å resolution. The structure was obtained by serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography from microcrystals at an X-ray free electron laser. We find overall good agreement compared to a crystal structure at 1.35 Å resolution derived from conventional crystallography at cryogenic temperatures, which we also report here. The thioether linkage between chromophore and protein is subject to positional ambiguity at the synchrotron, but is fully resolved with SFX. The study paves the way for time-resolved structural investigations of the phytochrome photocycle with time-resolved SFX.
Reuse Permissions
  • Downloads
    PDF (1.6 MB)

    Details

    Title
    • The room temperature crystal structure of a bacterial phytochrome determined by serial femtosecond crystallography
    Contributors
    Date Created
    2016-10-19
    Resource Type
  • Text
  • Collections this item is in
    Identifier
    • Digital object identifier: 10.1038/srep35279
    • Identifier Type
      International standard serial number
      Identifier Value
      2045-2322
    Note
    • The final version of this article, as published in Scientific Reports, can be viewed online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep35279

    Citation and reuse

    Cite this item

    This is a suggested citation. Consult the appropriate style guide for specific citation guidelines.

    Edlund, P., Takala, H., Claesson, E., Henry, L., Dods, R., Lehtivuori, H., . . . Westenhoff, S. (2016). The room temperature crystal structure of a bacterial phytochrome determined by serial femtosecond crystallography. Scientific Reports, 6(1). doi:10.1038/srep35279

    Machine-readable links