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A high‐performance neutron diffractometer for biological crystallography (BIX‐3)
Author(s) -
Tanaka I.,
Kurihara K.,
Chatake T.,
Niimura N.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s0021889801017745
Subject(s) - diffractometer , monochromator , neutron diffraction , crystallography , neutron , diffraction , chemistry , materials science , physics , optics , crystal structure , nuclear physics , wavelength
A high‐performance neutron diffractometer for biological crystallography (BIX‐3) has been constructed at JRR‐3M in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) in order to determine the hydrogen‐atom positions in biological macromolecules. It uses several recent technical innovations, such as a neutron imaging plate and an elastically bent silicon monochromator developed by the authors. These have made it possible to realise a compact vertical arrangement of the diffractometer. Diffraction data have been collected from the proteins rubredoxin and myoglobin in about one month, to a resolution of 1.5 Å. The data were good enough to identify the hydrogen atoms with high accuracy. By adopting a crystal‐step scan method for measuring Bragg diffraction intensities, the signal‐to‐noise ratio was much better than that of the Laue method. This shows that BIX‐3 is one of the best‐performing machines for neutron protein crystallography in the world today.