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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Microcrystallography of Protein Crystals and In Cellulo Diffraction
Published on: July 21, 2017
The ultimate wavelength for protein crystallography?
I Polikarpov1, A Teplyakov, G Oliva
1LNLS, CP 6192, CEP 13081-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil. igor@lnls.br
Abstract:
This paper describes an analysis of the optimum choice of the X-ray wavelength for macromolecular diffraction data collection. It is shown that there is no ultimate X-ray wavelength for protein crystallography and that the optimum wavelength depends to a large extent on the size of the protein crystal. It also depends on instrumental factors, such as efficiency of the detector for a particular wavelength and spectral density of the synchrotron radiation. Estimates of the optimum wavelength as a function of crystal size are given.
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