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PreprintCC BY-NCbioRxiv

Symmetry Breaking under Vectorial Perturbations in Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography

  • H. K. Wang
  • J. B. Greisman
  • K. M. Dalton
  • R. A. Hewitt
  • K. I. White
  • D. R. Hekstra1
  1. 1Harvard University
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Abstract

Proteins are molecular machines whose dynamics govern their function. Using time-resolved crystallography, the basis of protein mechanics can be uncovered by physical perturbation on protein crystals. Perturbations are often vector fields that, in crystals, break symmetry. Lacking existing tools for analyzing symmetry breaking, we built open-source software to do so. We applied this method to three time-resolved crystallography experiments and analyzed the effect of vectorial perturbations on macromolecular crystal structure. We demonstrate that our method can handle symmetry reduction in all 65 Sohncke space groups.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{wang2026symmetry,
  title = {{Symmetry Breaking under Vectorial Perturbations in Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography}},
  author = {H. K. Wang and J. B. Greisman and K. M. Dalton and R. A. Hewitt and K. I. White and D. R. Hekstra},
  howpublished = {bioRxiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.64898/2026.09.28.753211},
  url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.28.753211v1},
  note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Symmetry Breaking under Vectorial Perturbations in Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography
AU  - H. K. Wang
AU  - J. B. Greisman
AU  - K. M. Dalton
AU  - R. A. Hewitt
AU  - K. I. White
AU  - D. R. Hekstra
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/28
PB  - bioRxiv
DO  - 10.64898/2026.09.28.753211
UR  - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.28.753211v1
AB  - Proteins are molecular machines whose dynamics govern their function. Using time-resolved crystallography, the basis of protein mechanics can be uncovered by physical perturbation on protein crystals. Perturbations are often vector fields that, in crystals, break symmetry. Lacking existing tools for analyzing symmetry breaking, we built open-source software to do so. We applied this method to three time-resolved crystallography experiments and analyzed the effect of vectorial perturbations on macromolecular crystal structure. We demonstrate that our method can handle symmetry reduction in all 65 Sohncke space groups.
ER  -