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Is radiation damage dependent on the dose rate used during macromolecular crystallography data collection?
Hanna Kirsti S Leiros1, Joanna Timmins, Raimond B G Ravelli
1Macromolecular Crystallography Group, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), 6 Rue Jules Horowitz, 38043 Grenoble, France.
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the radiation-damage effects when applying the same total X-ray dose to protein crystals at different dose rates. These experiments have been performed on both a selenomethionated protein and on bovine trypsin using dose rates that span nearly two orders of magnitude. The results show no clear dose-rate effect on the global indicators of radiation damage, but a small measurable dose-rate effect could be found when studying specific radiation damage. It is hypothesized that this observed dose-rate effect relates to differences in the steady-state free-radical concentration.
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