research papers Electron diffraction data processing with DIALS Max T. B. Clabbers,a Tim Gruene,b James M. Parkhurst,c Jan Pieter Abrahamsa,b and ISSN 2059-7983 David G. Watermand,e* aCenter for Cellular Imaging and NanoAnalytics (C-CINA), Biozentrum, University of Basel, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058 Basel, Switzerland, bPaul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland, cDiamond Light Source Ltd, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot OX11 0DE, England, dSTFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0FA, England, e Received 26 March 2018 and CCP4, Research Complex at Harwell, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0FA, England. Accepted 23 May 2018 *Correspondence e-mail:
[email protected] Electron diffraction is a relatively novel alternative to X-ray crystallography Edited by R. J. Read, University of Cambridge, for the structure determination of macromolecules from three-dimensional England nanometre-sized crystals. The continuous-rotation method of data collection has been adapted for the electron microscope. However, there are important Keywords: electron microscopy; electron crystallography; protein nanocrystals; diffraction differences in geometry that must be considered for successful data integration. geometry; DIALS. The wavelength of electrons in a TEM is typically around 40 times shorter than that of X-rays, implying a nearly flat Ewald sphere, and consequently low Supporting information: this article has diffraction angles and a high effective sample-to-detector distance. Nevertheless, supporting information at journals.iucr.org/d the DIALS software package can, with specific adaptations, successfully process continuous-rotation electron diffraction data. Pathologies encountered specifi- cally in electron diffraction make data integration more challenging. Errors can arise from instrumentation, such as beam drift or distorted diffraction patterns from lens imperfections.