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Microcrystal manipulation with laser tweezers.

Armin Wagner¹, Ramona Duman, Bob Stevens

¹Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0DE, England. armin.wagner@diamond.ac.uk

Acta Crystallographica. Section D, Biological Crystallography

|June 25, 2013

Summary

Automating the mounting of microcrystals using optical tweezers is crucial for advancing macromolecular crystallography. This technique enables efficient handling of tiny crystals for synchrotron X-ray data collection.

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Area of Science:

Structural Biology
Biophysics
Crystallography

Background:

X-ray crystallography is the primary method for determining atomic-resolution structures of macromolecules.
Structural genomics initiatives have automated many steps in X-ray crystallography, but crystal mounting remains a manual challenge.
Advances in microfocus synchrotron beamlines necessitate handling of smaller crystals (micrometre-sized).

Purpose of the Study:

To address the manual handling bottleneck in mounting microcrystals for X-ray crystallography.
To investigate the application of optical tweezers for manipulating and mounting macromolecular microcrystals.
To demonstrate the feasibility of using optical tweezers for automated crystal mounting.

Main Methods:

Utilizing optical tweezers, a technology for manipulating microscopic objects.

Keywords:

crystal manipulation laser tweezers microcrystals optical trapping sample holders

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Developing novel crystal holders designed for optical tweezer manipulation.

Mounting and collecting diffraction data from microcrystals (CPV type 1 polyhedrin) using laser tweezers.

Main Results:

Optical tweezers were successfully employed to sort and mount macromolecular crystals.
Diffraction data were collected from microcrystals mounted using this technique.
The method facilitates the handling of crystals with dimensions of only a few micrometres.

Conclusions:

Optical tweezers offer a viable solution for automating the mounting of microcrystals in X-ray crystallography.
This automation is essential for maximizing the use of advanced microfocus synchrotron beamlines.
The presented method paves the way for more efficient structural determination of macromolecules from small crystals.