Notes of a Protein Crystallographer: The advantages of combining new integrated methods of structure solution with traditional data visuals
The July 2021 workshop at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) in Chicago was useful to get a refresher course on the latest tools available for Structure Solution/Refinement. However, the lack of more ‘traditional’ visuals guides along the path for structure solution prompted an essay in the series ‘Notes of a Protein Crystallographer’. This essay includes thoughts and ideas that I had for a while, working on projects related to the targets of the Institute of Tuberculosis Research (ITR) at UIC.
Pseudo precession images of the crystallographic data for an R3 space group crystal showing the h,k,1 and h,k,0 plane (left, right respectively). These images show the value of the traditional precession images to characterize the space group: Left only 3-fold symmetry vs. right 6-fold symmetry. These patterns are diagnostic of the rhombohedral Space Group R3.
The streamlined crystallographic software tools for solving macromolecular crystal structures should be complemented with the visual aids that were used in the past (for example precession images and stereographic projections) to facilitate better understanding of the basic crystallographic concepts by younger aspiring crystallographers.