EMBL Outstation Research Articles

The use of synchrotron radiation in time-resolved X-ray diffraction studies of myosin layer-line reflections during muscle contraction.

Experiments on striated muscle have been carried out at the EMBL Outstation at DESY, Hamburg, using the electron-positron storage ring DORIS as a high-intensity X-ray source. The low-angle reflections from the myosin cross-bridges could be recorded more than 1,000 times more rapidly than with the best conventional X-ray sources, and could be followed during contraction with a time resolution of 10 ms.

Slow Scan SIT Detector for X-Ray Diffraction Studies Using Synchrotron Radiation

A TV-type X-ray detector using a SIT vidicon has been used for biological diffraction studies at the EMBL outstation at DESY, Hamburg, Germany. The detector converts the two-dimensional diffraction pattern to a charge pattern on the vidicon target, which is read out in the slow-scan mode. This detector has high DQE, no limit, and is simple and inexpensive to construct. Radiation from the storage ring DORIS was used to study the structure of live muscle at various phases of contraction. Typically the count-rate on the detector was 106 X-rays/sec and a total exposure of a few seconds was needed to record the weak diffraction from muscle. This compares with usual exposure times of several hours using a rotating anode generator and film.

Recent results of synchrotron radiation experiments at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Hamburg

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory runs two experimental halls at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron in Hamburg. One of these is located at the synchrotron DESY and the second is at the storage ring DORIS (fig. 1). The properties of synchrotron radiation are described by C. Kunz 1). As the radiation is filtered by 0.6 mm beryllium, only the X-ray spectrum from 4 Å to shorter wavelengths is available. The scientific research programme at the EMBL Out-station includes both X-ray diffractiob techniques as well as spectroscopic methods, which are used to investigate biological topics.