Three-dimensional reconstruction of the giant mimivirus particle with an x-ray free-electron laser

Phys Rev Lett. 2015 Mar 6;114(9):098102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.098102. Epub 2015 Mar 2.

Abstract

We present a proof-of-concept three-dimensional reconstruction of the giant mimivirus particle from experimentally measured diffraction patterns from an x-ray free-electron laser. Three-dimensional imaging requires the assembly of many two-dimensional patterns into an internally consistent Fourier volume. Since each particle is randomly oriented when exposed to the x-ray pulse, relative orientations have to be retrieved from the diffraction data alone. We achieve this with a modified version of the expand, maximize and compress algorithm and validate our result using new methods.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Electrons
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Lasers
  • Mimiviridae / ultrastructure*
  • X-Ray Diffraction / instrumentation
  • X-Ray Diffraction / methods*