Protein crystallography with spallation neutrons: Collecting and processing wavelength-resolved Laue protein data

The protein crystallography station at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center is the first to be built at a spallation neutron source. Time-of-flight methods in combination with a large electronic position-sensitive and time-sensitive detector are used in order to collect wavelength-resolved Laue diffraction data. The wavelength-resolved Laue technique is new to protein crystallography and has required the development of new strategies for data collection and data analysis. The software suite d*TREK has been adapted and used in combination with the Daresbury Laue software suite, the instrument control software PCSGUI, and the graphics program O, for data collection and processing in the protein crystallography station wavelength-resolved Laue environment. Examples are given, as typical, for data processing from rubredoxin, insulin and D-xylose isomerase with unit cells ranging from 34.32 × 35.31 × 44.23 Å to 93.78 × 88.53 × 102.90 Å, thus illustrating the power of the instrument and the scope of the instrument software.