X射线自由电子激光晶体学在结构生物学中的应用

X射线晶体学是获得生物大分子三维空间结构最主要的方法。基于X射线自由电子激光的晶体学——串行飞秒晶体学方法的出现，以其独特的优势为结构生物学研究提供了一种全新的研究手段。文章主要介绍了串行飞秒晶体学方法在结构生物学领域的应用及所取得的成果。这些成果表明该方法是在亚纳米空间尺度和飞秒时间尺度、在接近于自然状态下进行生物大分子静态和动态结构研究的强有力手段。

Application of X-ray free electron laser crystallography in structural biology

X-ray crystallography is the most powerful method to obtain the structure of biomolecular crystals. The emergence of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) using the X-ray free electron laser has provided a brand new tool for the study of structural biology. In this paper, we introduce the application and achievements of SFX in the field of structural biology. These show that the method is indispensable for the study of biological macromolecular dynamics and static structure in the natural state on the sub-nanometer scale and the femtosecond time scale.