Biological Small Angle Scattering Techniques and Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Physics General".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2023) | Viewed by 2350

Special Issue Editor

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Interests: biophysics; biomembrane; membrane-active peptide; membrane protein; X-ray/neutron scattering/diffraction techniques and instrumentations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue on “Biological Small Angle Scattering: Techniques and Applications” in the Journal Applied Sciences.

Small angle scattering (SAS) in either X-ray or Neutron (SAXS/SANS) has become an essential technique in understanding biological structures and processes. The technique is amenable to samples in solution without crystallization and cryogenic preparation, providing an opportunity to study biomolecules in a more physiologically relevant condition. For example, the ensemble of structural conformations from SAS provides a critical understanding of large flexible and disordered systems. The contrast manipulation by SANS and deuterium labeling provides a viable approach to understand subunit structure in the context of the whole complex.

In this Special Issue, we invite original articles, review articles, and case reports highlighting new developments of the technique and their applications to explore new aspects of biological systems. Those include but are not limited to new instrumentation, sample preparation, sample environment, data process, and analysis methods/software.

Dr. Shuo Qian
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • small angle scattering
  • SAXS
  • SANS
  • biological SAS
  • solution SAS
  • protein structure
  • membrane structure
  • biomolecule structure

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 2368 KiB  
Article
Effect of Shiga Toxin on Inhomogeneous Biological Membrane Structure Determined by Small-Angle Scattering
by Shuyang Tu, Haijiao Zhang, Yawen Li, Yongchao Zhang, Qiang Tian, László Almásy, Xianhui Xu, Rongguang Zhang, Aihua Zou and Na Li
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(15), 6965; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11156965 - 28 Jul 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1348
Abstract
Inhomogeneous structure occurring in biological membranes being rich in glycosphingolipids (GSL) has been proposed as an important phenomenon involved in the cellular endocytosis process. However, little is known about the correlation between the formation of microdomains and the GSL-dependent biogenesis for tubular endocytic [...] Read more.
Inhomogeneous structure occurring in biological membranes being rich in glycosphingolipids (GSL) has been proposed as an important phenomenon involved in the cellular endocytosis process. However, little is known about the correlation between the formation of microdomains and the GSL-dependent biogenesis for tubular endocytic pits occurred on the surface of the cellular membrane. In the present work, the interaction between the bacterial Shiga toxin from Escherichia coli (STxB) and its cellular receptor GSL globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) were studied using small unilamellar vesicle (SUV). The model membrane invagination induced by STxB was determined by the contrast variation small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and the synchrotron radiation facility based small-angle X-ray scattering (SR-SAXS). The results revealed that Gb3 molecules provided the binding sites for STxB, inducing increased membrane fluctuation. The formation of protein–lipid complex (STxB-Gb3) apparently induced the thinning of model membrane with the thickness decreased from 3.10 nm to 2.50 nm. It is the first time to successfully characterize the mesoscopic change on membrane thickness upon GSL-dependent endocytic process using a small-angle scattering technique. Overall, this paper provided a practical method to quantify the inhomogeneous biological membrane structures, which is important to understand the cellular endocytosis process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Small Angle Scattering Techniques and Applications)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop