Time-Resolved Macromolecular Crystallography at Modern X-Ray Sources

Abstract

Time-resolved macromolecular crystallography unifies protein structure determination with chemical kinetics. With the advent of fourth generation X-ray sources the time-resolution can be on the order of 10-40 fs, which opens the ultrafast time scale to structure determination. Fundamental motions and transitions associated with chemical reactions in proteins can now be observed. Moreover, new experimental approaches at synchrotrons allow for the straightforward investigation of all kind of reactions in biological macromolecules. Here, recent developments in the field are reviewed.

Keywords: Chemical kinetics; Structure based enzymology; Time-resolved macromolecular crystallography; Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography.