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Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Microfluidic Chips for In Situ Crystal X-ray Diffraction and In Situ Dynamic Light Scattering for Serial Crystallography
Published on: April 24, 2018
Improving diffraction resolution using a new dehydration method
Qingqiu Huang1, Doletha M E Szebenyi1
1MacCHESS, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Abstract:
The production of high-quality crystals is one of the major obstacles in determining the three-dimensional structure of macromolecules by X-ray crystallography. It is fairly common that a visually well formed crystal diffracts poorly to a resolution that is too low to be suitable for structure determination. Dehydration has proven to be an effective post-crystallization treatment for improving crystal diffraction quality. Several dehydration methods have been developed, but no single one of them is suitable for all crystals. Here, a new convenient and effective dehydration method is reported that makes use of a dehydrating solution that will not dry out in air for several hours. Using this dehydration method, the resolution of Archaeoglobus fulgidus Cas5a crystals has been increased from 3.2 to 1.95 Å and the resolution of Escherichia coli LptA crystals has been increased from <5 to 3.4 Å.
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