Neutron scattering applications in structural biology: now and the future

Neutrons have an important role to play in structural biology. Neutron crystallography, small-angle neutron scattering and inelastic neutron scattering techniques all contribute unique information on biomolecular structures. In particular, solution scattering techniques give critical information on the conformations and dispositions of the components of complex assemblies under a wide variety of relevant conditions. The power of these methods is demonstrated here by studies of protein/DNA complexes, and Ca2+-binding proteins complexed with their regulatory targets. In addition, we demonstrate the utility of a new structural approach using neutron resonance scattering. The impact of biological neutron scattering to date has been constrained principally by the available fluxes at neutron sources and the true potential of these approaches will only be realized with the development of new more powerful neutron sources. (author)