SAD phasing: History, current impact and future opportunities

John P Rose; Bi-Cheng Wang

doi:10.1016/j.abb.2016.03.018

SAD phasing: History, current impact and future opportunities

Arch Biochem Biophys. 2016 Jul 15:602:80-94. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2016.03.018. Epub 2016 Mar 30.

Authors

John P Rose¹, Bi-Cheng Wang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. Electronic address: jprose@uga.edu.
² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. Electronic address: bcwang@uga.edu.

PMID: 27036852
DOI: 10.1016/j.abb.2016.03.018

Abstract

Single wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) can trace its beginnings to the early 1950s. Researchers at the time recognized that SAD offers some unique features that might be advantageous for crystallographic phasing, despite the fact that at that time recording accurate SAD data was problematic. In this review we will follow the trail from those early days, highlighting key advances in the field and interpreting them in terms on how they stimulated continued phasing development that produced the theoretical foundation for the routine macromolecular structure determination by SAD today. The technological advances over the past three decades in both hardware and software, which played a significant role in making SAD phasing a 'first choice method', will also be described.

Keywords: Current methods; Early work; Hardware and software; Native SAD; Phasing; Single wavelength anomalous diffraction.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Computer Simulation
Forecasting
Models, Molecular*
Protein Conformation
Proteins / chemistry*
Proteins / ultrastructure*
X-Ray Diffraction / methods*
X-Ray Diffraction / trends*

Substances

Proteins