Protein-Cross-Linking zur Aufklärung von komplexen Strukturen

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) can solve structures of highly dynamic macromolecular complexes. To characterize less well defined regions in cryo-EM images, cross-linking coupled with mass spectrometry (CX-MS) provides valuable information on the arrangement of domains and amino acids. CX-MS involves covalent linkage of protein residues close to each other and identifying these connections by mass spectrometry. Here, we summarise the advances of CX-MS and its integration with cryo-EM for structural reconstruction.