Summary
As researchers strive to understand the interplay between the complex molecular systems that make up living cells, tools for characterizing the interactions between the various players involved have developed. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) plays an important role in building a molecular-level understanding of the structures of macromolecular systems that make up cells. SANS is widely applicable to the study of biological structures including, but by no means limited to, protein–protein or protein–nucleic acid complexes, lipid membranes, cellular scaffolding, and amyloid plaques. Here, we present a brief description of the technique as it is commonly applied to the study of biological systems and an overview instrumentation that is available at the various facilities around the world.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Koester, L., Rauch, H. and Seymann, E. (1991). Neutron-scattering lengths - a survey of experimental-data and methods. Atomic Data Nuclear Data Tables 49, 65–120
Debye, P. and Bueche, A. (1949). Scattering by an inhomogeneous solid. J. Appl. Phys. 20, 518–525
Guinier, A. and Fournet, G. (1955). Small-angle scattering of X-rays, Wiley, New York
Ibel, K. and Stuhrmann, H. B. (1975). Comparison of neutron and X-ray-scattering of dilute myoglobin solutions. J. Mol. Biol. 93, 255–265
Ibel, K. (1976). Neutron small-angle camera D11 at high-flux reactor, Grenoble. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 9, 296–309
Lindner, P., May, R. P. and Timmins, P. A. (1992). Upgrading of the SANS instrument-D11 at the ILL. Physica B 180, 967–972
Heenan, R. K., Penfold, J. and King, S. M. (1997). SANS at pulsed neutron sources: present and future prospects. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 30, 1140–1147
Thiyagarajan, P., Epperson, J. E., Crawford, R. K., Carpenter, J. M., Klippert, T. E. and Wozniak, D. G. (1997). The time-of-flight small-angle neutron diffractometer (SAD) at IPNS, Argonne National Laboratory. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 30, 280–293
Seeger, P. A., Hjelm, R. P. and Nutter, M. J. (1990). The low-Q diffractometer at the Los-Alamos-Neutron-Scattering-Center. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 180, 101–117
Glinka, C. J., Barker, J. G., Hammouda, B., Krueger, S., Moyer, J. J. and Orts, W. J. (1998). The 30 m small-angle neutron scattering instruments at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 31, 430–445
Lynn, G. W., Buchanan, M. V., Butler, P. D., Magid, L. J. and Wignall, G. D. (2003). New high-flux small-angle neutron scattering instrumentation and the center for structural and molecular biology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 36, 829–831
Lynn, G. W., Heller, W., Urban, V., Wignall, G. D., Weiss, K. and Myles, D. A. A. (2006). Bio-SANS – a dedicated facility for neutron structural biology at oak ridge national laboratory. Phys. B Condens. Matter 385–386, 880–882
Schwahn, D., Meier, G. and Springer, T. (1991). SANS Instruments at the Julich Research Reactor Frj-2. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 24, 568–570
Gilles, R., Ostermann, A., Schanzer, C., Krimmer, B. and Petry, W. (2006). The concept of the new small-angle scattering instrument SANS-1 at the FRM-II. Phys. B Condens. Matter 385–386, 1174–1176
Kampmann, R., Haese-Seiller, M., Kudryashov, V., Nickel, B., Daniel, C., Fenzl, W., Schreyer, A., Sackmann, E. and Radler, J. (2006). Horizontal ToF-neutron reflectometer REFSANS at FRM-II Munich/Germany: first tests and status. Physica B: Condens. Matter 385–386, 1161–1163
Keiderling, U. and Wiedenmann, A. (1995). New SANS instrument at the Ber-Ii Reactor in Berlin, Germany. Physica B 213, 895–897
Keller, T., Krist, T., Danzig, A., Keiderling, U., Mezei, F. and Wiedenmann, A. (2000). The polarized neutron small-angle scattering instrument at BENSC Berlin. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A Accel. Spectrom. Detect. Assoc. Equip. 451, 474–479
Zhao, J., Meerwinck, W., Niinikoski, T., Rijllart, A., Schmitt, M., Willumeit, R. and Stuhrmann, H. (1995). The polarized target station at GKSS. Nuclear Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A Accel. Spectrom. Detect. Assoc. Equip. 356, 133–137
Kohlbrecher, J. and Wagner, W. (2000). The new SANS instrument at the Swiss spallation source SINQ. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 33, 804–806
Putra, E. G. R., Ikram, A., Santoso, E. and Bharoto, B. (2007). Performance of the 36 m small–angle neutron scattering spectrometer at BATAN, Serpong, Indonesia. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 40, S447–S452
Gilbert, E. P., Schulz, J. C. and Noakes, T. J.(2006). ‘Quokka’ - the small-angle neutron scattering instrument at OPAL. Phys. B Condens. Matter 385–386, 1180–1182
Rosta, L. (1995). Neutron-scattering for condensed-matter research and materials science at the Budapest-Research-Reactor. Physica B 213, 848–850
Ito, Y., Imai, M. and Takahashi, S. (1995). Small-Angle Neutron-Scattering Instrument of the Institute for Solid-State Physics, University-of-Tokyo (SANS-U). Physica B 213, 889–891
Koizumi, S., Iwase, H., Suzuki, J., Oku, T., Motokawa, R., Sasao, H., Tanaka, H., Yamaguchi, D., Shimizu, H. M. and Hashimoto, T. (2006). Focusing and polarized neutron ultra-small-angle scattering spectrometer (SANS-J-II) at Research Reactor JRR3, Japan. Phys. B Condens. Matter 385–386, 1000–1006
Ostanevich, Y. M. (1988). Time-of-flight small-angle scattering spectrometers on pulsed neutron sources. Makromol. Chem., Macromol. Symp. 15, 91–103
Serdyuk, I. N. (1995). Small-angle neutron instrument Yumo (Jinr, Dubna) – some new results and perspectives. Physica B 213, 892–894
Seong, B. S., Han, Y. S., Lee, C. H., Lee, J. S., Hong, K. P., Park, K. N. and Kim, H. J. (2002). The small angle neutron spectrometer at the HANARO reactor, Korea. Appl. Phys. A-Mater. Sci. Process. 74, S201–S203
Han, Y.-S., Choi, S.-M., Kim, T.-H., Lee, C.-H. and Kim, H.-R. (2006). Design of 40M SANS instrument at HANARO, Korea. Phys. B Condens. Matter 385–386, 1177–1179
Choi, S. M., Barker, J. G., Glinka, C. J., Cheng, Y. T. and Gammel, P. L. (2000). Focusing cold neutrons with multiple biconcave lenses for small-angle neutron scattering. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 33, 793–796
Suzuki, J., Oku, T., Adachi, T., Shimizu, H. M., Hirumachi, T., Tsuchihashi, T. and Watanabe, I. (2003). Cold neutron beam focusing by a superconducting sextupole magnet. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 36, 795–799
Russell, J. T., Lin, Y., Boker, A., Su, L., Carl, P., Zettl, H., He, J. B., Sill, K., Tangirala, R., Emrick, T., Littrell, K., Thiyagarajan, P., Cookson, D., Fery, A., Wang, Q. and Russell, T. P. (2005). Self-assembly and cross-linking of bionanoparticles at liquid-liquid interfaces. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 44, 2420–2426
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Project KP1102010 of the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy, under contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed and operated by UT-Batelle, LLC. The submitted manuscript has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Heller, W.T., Littrell, K.C. (2009). Small-Angle Neutron Scattering for Molecular Biology: Basics and Instrumentation. In: Foote, R., Lee, J. (eds) Micro and Nano Technologies in Bioanalysis. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 544. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-483-4_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-483-4_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-934115-40-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-483-4
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols