X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) provide very intense X-ray pulses suitable for macromolecular crystallography. Each X-ray pulse typically lasts for tens of femtoseconds and the interval between pulses is many orders of magnitude longer. Here we describe two novel acoustic injection systems that use focused sound waves to eject picoliter to nanoliter crystal-containing droplets out of microplates and into the X-ray pulse from which diffraction data are collected. The on-demand droplet delivery is synchronized to the XFEL pulse scheme, resulting in X-ray pulses intersecting up to 88% of the droplets. We tested several types of samples in a range of crystallization conditions, wherein the overall crystal hit ratio (e.g., fraction of images with observable diffraction patterns) is a function of the microcrystal slurry concentration. We report crystal structures from lysozyme, thermolysin, and stachydrine demethylase (Stc2). Additional samples were screened to demonstrate that these methods can be applied to rare samples.

Nat. Methods 11, 545–548 (2014); published online 16 March 2014; corrected after print 3 June 2015 In the version of this article initially published, the authors claimed that with the tool cctbx.xfel, weak diffraction signals can be measured using fewer crystal specimens than are needed for the previously available program CrystFEL.

In photosynthesis, photosystem II (PSII) is the multi-subunit membrane protein complex that catalyzes photo-oxidation of water into dioxygen through the oxygen evolving complex (OEC). To understand the water oxidation reaction, it is important to get structural information about the transient and intermediate states of the OEC in the dimeric PSII core complex (dPSIIcc). In recent times, femtosecond X-ray pulses from the free electron laser (XFEL) are being used to obtain X-ray diffraction (XRD) data of dPSIIcc microcrystals at room temperature that are free of radiation damage. In our experiments at the XFEL, we used an electrospun liquid microjet setup that requires microcrystals less than 40 μm in size. In this study, we explored various microseeding techniques to get a high yield of monodisperse uniform-sized microcrystals. Monodisperse microcrystals of dPSIIcc of uniform size were a key to improve the stability of the jet and the quality of XRD data obtained at the XFEL. This was evident by an improvement of the quality of the datasets obtained, from 6.5Å, using crystals grown without the micro seeding approach, to 4.5Å using crystals generated with the new method.

In this study we use a combination of absorption, fluorescence and low temperature single-molecule spectroscopy to elucidate the spectral properties, heterogeneities and dynamics of the chlorophyll a (Chla) molecules responsible for the fluorescence emission of photosystem II core complexes (PS II cc) from the cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus. At the ensemble level, the absorption and fluorescence spectra show a temperature dependence similar to plant PS II. We report emission spectra of single PS II cc for the first time; the spectra are dominated by zero-phonon lines (ZPLs) in the range between 680 and 705 nm. The single-molecule experiments show unambiguously that different emitters and not only the lowest energy trap contribute to the low temperature emission spectrum. The average emission spectrum obtained from more than hundred single complexes shows three main contributions that are in good agreement with the reported bands F685, F689 and F695. The intensity of F695 is found to be lower than in conventional ensemble spectroscopy. The reason for the deviation might be due to the accumulation of triplet states on the red-most chlorophylls (e.g. Chl29 in CP47) or on carotenoids close to these long-wavelength traps by the high excitation power used in the single-molecule experiments. The red-most emitter will not contribute to the fluorescence spectrum as long as it is in the triplet state. In addition, quenching of fluorescence by the triplet state may lead to a decrease of long-wavelength emission.

The structure of photosystem II and the catalytic intermediate states of the Mn4CaO5 cluster involved in water oxidation have been studied intensively over the past several years. An understanding of the sequential chemistry of light absorption and the mechanism of water oxidation, however, requires a new approach beyond the conventional steady-state crystallography and X-ray spectroscopy at cryogenic temperatures. In this report, we present the preliminary progress using an X-ray free-electron laser to determine simultaneously the light-induced protein dynamics via crystallography and the local chemistry that occurs at the catalytic centre using X-ray spectroscopy under functional conditions at room temperature.

The dioxygen we breathe is formed by light-induced oxidation of water in photosystem II. O 2 formation takes place at a catalytic manganese cluster within milliseconds after the photosystem II reaction centre is excited by three single-turnover flashes. Here we present combined X-ray emission spectra and diffraction data of 2-flash (2F) and 3-flash (3F) photosystem II samples, and of a transient 3F’ state (250 μs after the third flash), collected under functional conditions using an X-ray free electron laser. The spectra show that the initial O–O bond formation, coupled to Mn reduction, does not yet occur within 250 μs after the third flash. Diffraction data of all states studied exhibit an anomalous scattering signal from Mn but show no significant structural changes at the present resolution of 4.5 Å. This study represents the initial frames in a molecular movie of the structural changes during the catalytic reaction in photosystem II.

Photosystem II (PSII) catalyzes a key step in photosynthesis, the oxidation of water to oxygen. Excellent structural models exist for the dimeric PSII core complex of cyanobacteria, but higher order physiological assemblies readily dissociate when solubilized from the native thylakoid membrane with detergent. Here, we describe the crystallization of PSII from Thermosynechococcus elongatus with a postcrystallization treatment involving extraction of the detergent C12E8. This resulted in a transition from Type II to Type I-like membrane protein crystals and improved diffraction to 2.44 Å resolution. The obtained PSII packing in precise rows, interconnected by specific pairs of galactolipids and a loop in the PsbO subunit specific to cyanobacteria, is superimposable with previous electron microscopy images of the thylakoid membrane. The study provides a detailed model of such a superstructure and its organization of light-harvesting pigments with possible implications for the understanding of their efficient use of solar energy.

Intense femtosecond x-ray pulses produced at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) were used for simultaneous x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) of microcrystals of photosystem II (PS II) at room temperature. This method probes the overall protein structure and the electronic structure of the Mn4CaO5 cluster in the oxygen-evolving complex of PS II. XRD data are presented from both the dark state (S1) and the first illuminated state (S2) of PS II. Our simultaneous XRD-XES study shows that the PS II crystals are intact during our measurements at the LCLS, not only with respect to the structure of PS II, but also with regard to the electronic structure of the highly radiation-sensitive Mn4CaO5 cluster, opening new directions for future dynamics studies.

Most of the dioxygen on earth is generated by the oxidation of water by photosystem II (PS II) using light from the sun. This light-driven, four-photon reaction is catalyzed by the Mn 4 CaO 5 cluster located at the lumenal side of PS II. Various X-ray studies have been carried out at cryogenic temperatures to understand the intermediate steps involved in the water oxidation mechanism. However, the necessity for collecting data at room temperature, especially for studying the transient steps during the O–O bond formation, requires the development of new methodologies. In this paper we report room temperature X-ray diffraction data of PS II microcrystals obtained using ultrashort (< 50 fs) 9 keV X-ray pulses from a hard X-ray free electron laser, namely the Linac Coherent Light Source. The results presented here demonstrate that the ”probe before destroy” approach using an X-ray free electron laser works even for the highly-sensitive Mn 4 CaO 5 cluster in PS II at room temperature. We show that these data are comparable to those obtained in synchrotron radiation studies as seen by the similarities in the overall structure of the helices, the protein subunits and the location of the various cofactors. This work is, therefore, an important step toward future studies for resolving the structure of the Mn 4 CaO 5 cluster without any damage at room temperature, and of the reaction intermediates of PS II during O–O bond formation.

The ultrabright femtosecond X-ray pulses provided by X-ray free-electron lasers open capabilities for studying the structure and dynamics of a wide variety of systems beyond what is possible with synchrotron sources. Recently, this “probe-before-destroy” approach has been demonstrated for atomic structure determination by serial X-ray diffraction of microcrystals. There has been the question whether a similar approach can be extended to probe the local electronic structure by X-ray spectroscopy. To address this, we have carried out femtosecond X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) at the Linac Coherent Light Source using redox-active Mn complexes. XES probes the charge and spin states as well as the ligand environment, critical for understanding the functional role of redox-active metal sites. Kβ 1,3 XES spectra of Mn II and Mn 2 III,IV complexes at room temperature were collected using a wavelength dispersive spectrometer and femtosecond X-ray pulses with an individual dose of up to >100 MGy. The spectra were found in agreement with undamaged spectra collected at low dose using synchrotron radiation. Our results demonstrate that the intact electronic structure of redox active transition metal compounds in different oxidation states can be characterized with this shot-by-shot method. This opens the door for studying the chemical dynamics of metal catalytic sites by following reactions under functional conditions. The technique can be combined with X-ray diffraction to simultaneously obtain the geometric structure of the overall protein and the local chemistry of active metal sites and is expected to prove valuable for understanding the mechanism of important metalloproteins, such as photosystem II.

An electrospun liquid microjet has been developed that delivers protein microcrystal suspensions at flow rates of 0.14-3.1 µl min(-1) to perform serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) studies with X-ray lasers. Thermolysin microcrystals flowed at 0.17 µl min(-1) and diffracted to beyond 4 Å resolution, producing 14,000 indexable diffraction patterns, or four per second, from 140 µg of protein. Nanoflow electrospinning extends SFX to biological samples that necessitate minimal sample consumption.

The photosystem II core complex is the water:plastoquinone oxidoreductase of oxygenic photosynthesis situated in the thylakoid membrane of cyanobacteria, algae and plants. It catalyzes the light-induced transfer of electrons from water to plastoquinone accompanied by the net transport of protons from the cytoplasm (stroma) to the lumen, the production of molecular oxygen and the release of plastoquinol into the membrane phase. In this review, we outline our present knowledge about the "acceptor side" of the photosystem II core complex covering the reaction center with focus on the primary (QA) and secondary (QB) quinones situated around the non-heme iron with bound (bi)carbonate and a comparison with the reaction center of purple bacteria. Related topics addressed are quinone diffusion channels for plastoquinone/plastoquinol exchange, the newly discovered third quinone QC, the relevance of lipids, the interactions of quinones with the still enigmatic cytochrome b559 and the role of QA in photoinhibition and photoprotection mechanisms. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Photosystem II.

The photosynthetic oxygen-evolving photosystem II (PSII) is the only known biochemical system that is able to oxidize water molecules and thereby generates almost all oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. The elucidation of the structural and mechanistic aspects of PSII keeps scientists all over the world engaged since several decades. In this Minireview, we outline the progress in understanding PSII based on the most recent crystal structure at 2.9 A resolution. A likely position of the chloride ion, which is known to be required for the fast turnover of water oxidation, could be determined in native PSII and is compared with work on bromide and iodide substituted PSII. Moreover, eleven new integral lipids could be assigned, emphasizing the importance of lipids for the perfect function of PSII. A third plastoquinone molecule (Q(C)) and a second quinone transfer channel are revealed, making it possible to consider different mechanisms for the exchange of plastoquinone/plastoquinol molecules. In addition, possible transport channels for water, dioxygen and protons are identified.