A high‐speed data‐collection system for large‐unit‐cell crystals using an imaging plate as a detector

A high‐speed data‐collection system for large‐unit‐cell crystals is presented, using the Fuji Imaging Plate as an X‐ray detector and a rotating‐anode generator as the X‐ray source. It is an automatic data‐acquisition system that requires almost no manual intervention. The quality of data collected on the system is discussed. Merging R values ranged from 0.04 to 0.05. Compared with a four‐circle diffractometer, data reproducibility was better, isomorphous/anomalous Patterson maps were almost identical in quality and data from a small‐molecule crystal, cytidine, were of almost the same quality. Protein structures were refinable using the data measured on the system, the final crystallographic R value of the 2.2 Å 3‐isopropylmalatedehydrogenase structure being 0.185 and that of the 1.88 Å Flammulina veltipes agglutinin structure being 0.199.