Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol. 2026 Jul 1. doi: 10.1107/S2059798326003943. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Radiation damage to macromolecular structures remains a significant challenge for accurate structure solution by X-ray crystallography, leading to incorrect structural and chemical interpretation of the data. Site-specific radiation damage is insidious, typically unidentifiable solely from summary statistics, and is primarily discussed with reference to the predominant forms: disulfide-bond cleavage, metal-centre reduction and decarboxylation of acidic residues. A method is presented for identifying potentially oxidatively damaged cysteines by interrogating the accuracy of the built model within the electron density and the geometry of the difference density peaks surrounding a cysteine. We also highlight that cysteines located within protein active sites or that are in hydrolases are predisposed to this damage.
PMID:42223917 | DOI:10.1107/S2059798326003943
