The SIBYLS beamline of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is a dual endstation small-angle X-ray scattering and macromolecular crystallography beamline. Key features and capabilities are described along with implementation and performance.

The recent innovation of collecting X-ray scattering from solutions containing purified macromolecules in high-throughput has yet to be truly exploited by the biological community. Yet, this capability is becoming critical given that the growth of sequence and genomics data is significantly outpacing structural biology results. Given the huge mismatch in information growth rates between sequence and structural methods, their combined high-throughput and high success rate make high-throughput small angle X-ray scattering (HT-SAXS) analyses increasingly valuable. HT-SAXS connects sequence as well as NMR and crystallographic results to biological outcomes by defining the flexible and dynamic complexes controlling cell biology. Commonly falling under the umbrella of bio-SAXS, HT-SAXS data collection pipelines have or are being developed at most synchrotrons. How investigators practically get their biomolecules of interest into these pipelines, balance sample requirements and manage HT-SAXS data output format varies from facility to facility. While these features are unlikely to be standardized across synchrotron beamlines, a detailed description of HT-SAXS issues for one pipeline provides investigators with a practical guide to the general procedures they will encounter. One of the longest running and generally accessible HT-SAXS endstations is the SIBYLS beamline at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley CA. Here we describe the current state of the SIBYLS HT-SAXS pipeline, what is necessary for investigators to integrate into it, the output format and a summary of results from 2 years of operation. Assessment of accumulated data informs issues of concentration, background, buffers, sample handling, sample shipping, homogeneity requirements, error sources, aggregation, radiation sensitivity, interpretation, and flags for concern. By quantitatively examining success and failures as a function of sample and data characteristics, we define practical concerns, considerations, and concepts for optimally applying HT-SAXS techniques to biological samples.

Comprehensive perspectives of macromolecular conformations are required to connect structure to biology. Here we present a small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) Structural Similarity Map (SSM) and Volatility of Ratio (VR) metric providing comprehensive, quantitative and objective (superposition-independent) perspectives on solution state conformations. We validate VR and SSM utility on human MutSβ, a key ABC ATPase and chemotherapeutic target, by revealing MutSβ DNA sculpting and identifying multiple conformational states for biological activity.

Protein framework alterations in heritable Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) mutants cause misassembly and aggregation in cells affected by the motor neuron disease ALS. However, the mechanistic relationship between superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) mutations and human disease is controversial, with many hypotheses postulated for the propensity of specific SOD mutants to cause ALS. Here, we experimentally identify distinguishing attributes of ALS mutant SOD proteins that correlate with clinical severity by applying solution biophysical techniques to six ALS mutants at human SOD hotspot glycine 93. A small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) assay and other structural methods assessed aggregation propensity by defining the size and shape of fibrillar SOD aggregates after mild biochemical perturbations. Inductively coupled plasma MS quantified metal ion binding stoichiometry, and pulsed dipolar ESR spectroscopy evaluated the Cu 2+ binding site and defined cross-dimer copper-copper distance distributions. Importantly, we find that copper deficiency in these mutants promotes aggregation in a manner strikingly consistent with their clinical severities. G93 mutants seem to properly incorporate metal ions under physiological conditions when assisted by the copper chaperone but release copper under destabilizing conditions more readily than the WT enzyme. Altered intradimer flexibility in ALS mutants may cause differential metal retention and promote distinct aggregation trends observed for mutant proteins in vitro and in ALS patients. Combined biophysical and structural results test and link copper retention to the framework destabilization hypothesis as a unifying general mechanism for both SOD aggregation and ALS disease progression, with implications for disease severity and therapeutic intervention strategies. Lou Gehrig's disease | small-angle X-ray scattering | protein aggregation | protein conformation | ESR spectroscopy A LS is a lethal degenerative disease of the human motor system (1). Opportunities for improved understanding and clinical intervention arose from the discovery that up to 23.5% of familial ALS cases and 7% of spontaneous cases are caused by mutations in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene encoding human Cu, Zn SOD (2-4). SOD is a highly conserved (5), dimeric, antioxidant metalloenzyme that detoxifies superoxide radicals (6, 7), but overexpression of SOD1 ALS mutants is sufficient to cause disease in mice (8). Misfolded and/or aggregated SOD species are deposited within mouse neuronal and glial inclusions (9, 10), even before symptoms appear (11,12). Although human familial ALS has a symptomatic phenotype indistinguishable from sporadic cases (13), individual SOD1 mutations can result in highly variable disease progression and penetrance (14,15).Many nongeneral mechanisms, including loss of activity or gain of function, were postulated to explain the roles of SOD mutants in ALS (3,(16)(17)(18)(19). Recently, however, an initial hypothesis proposing that SOD manifests disease symptoms by framework dest...

Processive, ring-shaped protein and nucleic acid protein translocases control essential biochemical processes throughout biology and are considered high-prospect therapeutic targets. The Escherichia coli Rho factor is an exemplar hexameric RNA translocase that terminates transcription in bacteria. As with many ring-shaped motor proteins, Rho activity is modulated by a variety of poorly understood mechanisms, including small-molecule therapeutics, protein-protein interactions, and the sequence of its translocation substrate. Here, we establish the mechanism of action of two Rho effectors, the antibiotic bicyclomycin and nucleic acids that bind to Rho's primary RNA recruitment site. Using small-angle X-ray scattering and a fluorescence-based assay to monitor the ability of Rho to switch between open-ring (RNA-loading) and closed-ring (RNA-translocation) states, we found bicyclomycin to be a direct antagonist of ring closure. Reciprocally, the binding of nucleic acids to its N-terminal RNA recruitment domains is shown to promote the formation of a closed-ring Rho state, with increasing primary-site occupancy providing additive stimulatory effects. This study establishes bicyclomycin as a conformational inhibitor of Rho ring dynamics, highlighting the utility of developing assays that read out protein conformation as a prospective screening tool for ring-ATPase inhibitors. Our findings further show that the RNA sequence specificity used for guiding Rho-dependent termination derives in part from an intrinsic ability of the motor to couple the recognition of pyrimidine patterns in nascent transcripts to RNA loading and activity.antibiotic | ATPase | helicase | motor protein | transcription R ing-shaped hexameric helicases and translocases are motor proteins that control myriad essential viral and cellular processes. Many hexameric motors undergo substrate-dependent conformational changes that couple activity to the productive binding of client substrates (1-4). Internal regulatory domains and exogenous proteins or small molecules frequently impact client substrate recruitment and engagement by these enzymes (5-8); however, it is generally unclear how such factors control helicase or translocase dynamics.Rho is a hexameric helicase responsible for controlling ∼20% of all transcription termination events in Escherichia coli (9). Rho is initially recruited to nascent transcripts in an open, lock washer-shaped configuration (Fig. 1A) (10, 11), where it binds preferentially to pyrimidine-rich sequences (termed "Rho utilization of termination" sequences, or "rut" sites) using a primary RNA-binding site located in the N-terminal OB folds of the hexamer (12-14). Following rut recognition, Rho converts into a closed-ring form (Fig. 1B), locking the RNA strand into a secondary RNA-binding site formed by two conserved sequence elements known as the "Q" and "R" loops (15) located within the central pore of the hexamer. This conformational change, which we show in an accompanying paper to be both RNAand ATP-dependent (16), rearran...