Biophysical applications in structural and molecular biology

Abstract

The main objective of structural biology is to model proteins and other biological macromolecules and link the structural information to function and dynamics. The biological functions of protein molecules and nucleic acids are inherently dependent on their conformational dynamics. Imaging of individual molecules and their dynamic characteristics is an ample source of knowledge that brings new insights about mechanisms of action. The atomic-resolution structural information on most of the biomolecules has been solved by biophysical techniques; either by X-ray diffraction in single crystals or by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in solution. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is emerging as a new tool for analysis of a larger macromolecule that couldn’t be solved by X-ray crystallography or NMR. Now a day’s low-resolution Cryo-EM is used in combination with either X-ray crystallography or NMR. The present review intends to provide updated information on applications like X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM and NMR which can be used independently and/or together in solving structures of biological macromolecules for our full comprehension of their biological mechanisms.

The Latest Progress of Cryo Electron Microscopy Technology in Protein Structure Analysis

“…The combination of Cryo-EM with other structural biology techniques such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) (Tsegaye et al, 2021) will open up new research avenues. This cross technology integration not only breaks through the limitations of a single technology and provides more accurate and dynamic structural information, but also provides a more comprehensive perspective for the study of the structure and function of biological macromolecules, accelerating the transformation from basic research to applied research.…”

Sample Delivery Systems for Serial Femtosecond Crystallography at PAL-XFEL

“…Structural biology provides intuitive information for understanding life phenomena based on biomolecule structure [1][2][3][4]. Biophysical techniques such as macromolecular Xray crystallography (MX), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) have been used to determine the structure of biomolecules [5,6]. Among these, MX has the advantage of being able to observe molecules at the atomic resolution level and has made the greatest contribution to the field of structural biology [7,8].…”

Sample Delivery Systems for Serial Femtosecond Crystallography at the PAL-XFEL

“…Structural biology provides intuitive information for understanding life phenomena based on biomolecule structure [1][2][3][4]. Biophysical techniques such as macromolecular X-ray crystallography (MX), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) have been used to determine the structure of biomolecules [5,6]. Among these, MX has the advantage of being able to observe molecules at the atomic resolution level and has made the greatest contribution to the field of structural biology [7,8].…”