Please join us on February 9th at 12:00pm EST to hear James Foadi, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Diamond Synchrotron in Oxfordshire, give a primer on Assembling data from multiple crystals with BLEND.
Assembling data from multiple crystals with BLEND
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Diamond Synchrotron, Oxfordshire
Host: Jason Key
In recent times, in macromolecular crystallography, it has become increasingly common at synchrotrons to obtain complete merged datasets using partial data wedges from multiple crystals. There are several reasons for the emergence of this recent trend, all pointing to the fact that completeness and redundancy from many crystals are, in general, superior to those coming from single crystals. When dealing with multiple crystals, though, users face two problems: crystals isomorphism and the large number of possible datasets combinations. Both problems can be addressed using cluster analysis. The program BLEND [1], developed at the Diamond Light Source synchrotron and available in CCP4 [2], makes use of cluster analysis and of the POINTLESS [3] and AIMLESS [4] programs to help users assembling useful and complete data from multiple crystals. BLEND acts by default in a semi-automated way, but it is most effective when used interactively in repeated sessions. BLEND has been employed successfully to assemble data for a variety of macromolecules, especially membrane proteins and protein complexes.
[1] Foadi J, Aller P, Alguel Y, Cameron A, Axford D (2013) Clustering procedures for the optimal selection of data sets from multiple crystals in macromolecular crystallography. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr 69(8):1617-1632.
[2] Winn MD, Ballard CC, Cowtan KD, Dodson EJ, Emsley P et al (2011) Overview of the CCP4 suite and current developments. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr 67(4): 235-242.
[3] Evans PR (2006) Scaling and assessment of data quality. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr 62: 72-82.
[4] Evans PR.and Murshudov GN (2013) How good are my data and what is the resolution? Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr 69(7):1204-1214.
Documentation on BLEND and detailed tutorials can be found on the CCP4 website or on James Foadi's personal web page.
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