Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Single mimivirus particles intercepted and imaged with an X-ray laser
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Biology, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Molecular biophysics.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Biology, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Molecular biophysics.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Biology, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Molecular biophysics.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Biology, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Molecular biophysics.
Show others and affiliations
2011 (English)In: Nature, ISSN 0028-0836, E-ISSN 1476-4687, Vol. 470, no 7332, p. 78-81Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

X-ray lasers offer new capabilities in understanding the structure of biological systems, complex materials and matter under extreme conditions(1-4). Very short and extremely bright, coherent X-ray pulses can be used to outrun key damage processes and obtain a single diffraction pattern from a large macromolecule, a virus or a cell before the sample explodes and turns into plasma(1). The continuous diffraction pattern of non-crystalline objects permits oversampling and direct phase retrieval(2). Here we show that high-quality diffraction data can be obtained with a single X-ray pulse from a noncrystalline biological sample, a single mimivirus particle, which was injected into the pulsed beam of a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source(5). Calculations indicate that the energy deposited into the virus by the pulse heated the particle to over 100,000 K after the pulse had left the sample. The reconstructed exit wavefront (image) yielded 32-nm full-period resolution in a single exposure and showed no measurable damage. The reconstruction indicates inhomogeneous arrangement of dense material inside the virion. We expect that significantly higher resolutions will be achieved in such experiments with shorter and brighter photon pulses focused to a smaller area. The resolution in such experiments can be further extended for samples available in multiple identical copies.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2011. Vol. 470, no 7332, p. 78-81
National Category
Biological Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-146069DOI: 10.1038/nature09748ISI: 000286886400037PubMedID: 21293374OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-146069DiVA, id: diva2:397608
Available from: 2011-02-15 Created: 2011-02-15 Last updated: 2022-01-28
In thesis
1. Flash Diffractive Imaging in Three Dimensions
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Flash Diffractive Imaging in Three Dimensions
2012 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

During the last years we have seen the birth of free-electron lasers, a new type of light source ten billion times brighter than syncrotrons and able to produce pulses only a few femtoseconds long. One of the main motivations for building these multi-million dollar machines was the prospect of imaging biological samples such as proteins and viruses in 3D without the need for crystallization or staining. This thesis contains some of the first biological results from free-electron lasers.

These results include 2D images, both of whole cells and of the giant mimivirus and also con- tains a 3D density map of the mimivirus assembled from diffraction patterns from many virus particles. These are important proof-of-concept experiments but they also mark the point where free-electron lasers start to produce biologically relevant results. The most noteworthy of these results is the unexpectedly non-uniform density distribution of the internals of the mimivirus.

We also present Hawk, the only open-source software toolkit for analysing single particle diffraction data. The Uppsala-developed program suite supports a wide range fo algorithms and takes advantage of Graphics Processing Units which makes it very computationally efficient.

Last, the problem introduced by structural variability in samples is discussed. This includes a description of the problem and how it can be overcome, and also how it could be turned into an advantage that allows us to image samples in all of their conformational states.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2012. p. 68
Series
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology, ISSN 1651-6214 ; 960
Keywords
X-ray, diffraction, mimivirus, three dimensional, phase retrieval, EMC, manifold embedding, CXI, FEL, free-electron laser, single particle
National Category
Biophysics
Research subject
Physics with specialization in Biophysics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-179643 (URN)978-91-554-8439-2 (ISBN)
Public defence
2012-10-05, B22, BMC, Husargatan 3, Uppsala, 09:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2012-09-14 Created: 2012-08-21 Last updated: 2013-01-22Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMed

Authority records

Seibert, M. MarvinMaia, Filipe R. N. C.Caleman, CarlAndersson, Inger

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Seibert, M. MarvinEkeberg, TomasMaia, Filipe R. N. C.Svenda, MartinAndreasson, JakobIwan, BiancaWestphal, DanielHantke, MaxCaleman, CarlAndersson, IngerHajdu, Janos
By organisation
Molecular biophysics
In the same journal
Nature
Biological Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 536 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf