Neutron scattering in the biological sciences: progress and prospects

Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol. 2018 Dec 1;74(Pt 12):1129-1168. doi: 10.1107/S2059798318017503. Epub 2018 Dec 20.

Abstract

The scattering of neutrons can be used to provide information on the structure and dynamics of biological systems on multiple length and time scales. Pursuant to a National Science Foundation-funded workshop in February 2018, recent developments in this field are reviewed here, as well as future prospects that can be expected given recent advances in sources, instrumentation and computational power and methods. Crystallography, solution scattering, dynamics, membranes, labeling and imaging are examined. For the extraction of maximum information, the incorporation of judicious specific deuterium labeling, the integration of several types of experiment, and interpretation using high-performance computer simulation models are often found to be particularly powerful.

Keywords: biological systems; neutron scattering; structure and dynamics.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Crystallography / methods
  • Deuterium / analysis
  • Deuterium Exchange Measurement / methods
  • Humans
  • Models, Molecular
  • Neutron Diffraction / methods*
  • Neutrons
  • Proteins / chemistry*

Substances

  • Proteins
  • Deuterium