The Henderson limit is the

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

dose (energy per unit mass) a cryo-cooled

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

can absorb before the

diffraction pattern Diffraction is the deviation of waves from straight-line propagation without any change in their energy due to an obstacle or through an aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the propagating wav ...

decays to half of its original intensity. Its value is defined as 2 × 10⁷ Gy (J/kg).

Decay of diffraction patterns with increasing X-ray dose

Although the process is still not fully understood, diffraction patterns of crystals typically decay with X-ray exposure due to a number of processes which non-uniformly and irreversibly modify molecules that compose the crystal. These modifications induce disorder and thus decrease the intensity of

Bragg diffraction In many areas of science, Bragg's law — also known as Wulff–Bragg's condition or Laue–Bragg interference — is a special case of Laue diffraction that gives the angles for coherent scattering of waves from a large crystal lattice. It descr ...

. The processes behind these modifications include primary damage via the photo electric effect, covalent modification by

free radicals In chemistry, a radical, also known as a free radical, is an atom, molecule, or ion that has at least one unpaired electron, unpaired valence electron. With some exceptions, these unpaired electrons make radicals highly chemical reaction, chemi ...

, oxidation (

methionine Methionine (symbol Met or M) () is an essential amino acid in humans. As the precursor of other non-essential amino acids such as cysteine and taurine, versatile compounds such as SAM-e, and the important antioxidant glutathione, methionine play ...

residues), reduction (

disulfide bond In chemistry, a disulfide (or disulphide in British English) is a compound containing a functional group or the anion. The linkage is also called an SS-bond or sometimes a disulfide bridge and usually derived from two thiol groups. In inor ...

s) and

decarboxylation Decarboxylation is a chemical reaction that removes a carboxyl group and releases carbon dioxide (CO2). Usually, decarboxylation refers to a reaction of carboxylic acids, removing a carbon atom from a carbon chain. The reverse process, which is ...

(

glutamate Glutamic acid (symbol Glu or E; known as glutamate in its anionic form) is an α-amino acid that is used by almost all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins. It is a Essential amino acid, non-essential nutrient for humans, meaning that ...

aspartate Aspartic acid (symbol Asp or D; the ionic form is known as aspartate), is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. The L-isomer of aspartic acid is one of the 22 proteinogenic amino acids, i.e., the building blocks of protein ...

residues).

Practical significance

Although generalizable, the limit is defined in the context of biomolecular

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to Diffraction, diffract in specific directions. By measuring th ...

, where a typical experiment consists of exposing a single frozen crystal of a macromolecule (generally

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

) to an intense X-ray beam. The beams that are diffracted are then analyzed towards obtaining an atomically resolved model of the crystal. Such decay presents itself as a problem for crystallographers who require that the diffraction intensities decay as little as possible, to maximize the signal to noise ratio in order to determine accurate atomic models that describe the crystal.

References

* * * {{cite journal , last1=Murray , first1=James W. , last2=Rudiño-Piñera , first2=Enrique , last3=Owen , first3=Robin Leslie , last4=Grininger , first4=Martin , last5=Ravelli , first5=Raimond B. G. , last6=Garman , first6=Elspeth F. , title=Parameters affecting the X-ray dose absorbed by macromolecular crystals , journal=Journal of Synchrotron Radiation , date=14 April 2005 , volume=12 , issue=3 , pages=268–275 , doi=10.1107/S0909049505003262, pmid=15840910 , bibcode=2005JSynR..12..268M , doi-access=free Molecular biology