Harvesting Crystals Virtually

Once you find an experiment hit, you can virtually harvest your crystals and assign them to a synchrotron trip.

Prerequisite:

  • You have an experiment with crystal(s).

To harvest crystals virtually:

  1. Open an imaged experiment and double-click a well with crystals. The image you select will open in the Drop menu.

    OR

    Open an imaged experiment and go to the Drop menu. Then, click the Well or Drop button on the bottom bar to select an image with the crystal to harvest.

    Drop Menu

    Drop Menu

  2. Click the Harvesting button harvesting on the top right bar. The Harvesting panel will appear on the right side of your window and open the Crystal tab by default.

    Harvesting Panel

    Harvesting Panel

  3. In the Crystal tab, click the Harvest Crystal button harvesting_crystal.

  4. Your cursor will change to a plus icon. Then, draw a mask around the crystal location(s) within a drop.

    Drawing a Crystal Mask

    Drawing a Crystal Mask

    Note

    If you harvest more than one crystal in a drop, each crystal will have a different mask color.

  5. Once you draw a mask, the crystal cart(s) will appear on the panel.

    Crystal Carts

    Crystal Carts

    Depending on your need, you can add or assign cryoprotectants and soaking ingredients.

Crystal Definition Dialog Box

Find the information about the crystals you harvest in the Crystal Definition dialog box, accessible by clicking the Crystal Definition button crystal_def in each cart.

Crystal Definition Dialog Box

Crystal Definition Dialog Box

Crystal Information section:

  • Crystal ID: This field is automatically populated by ROCK MAKER.

  • Crystal Name: Change the crystal’s name in this field if you do not want to use the default name.

    Note

    Only administrators can change the default crystal name format in the Project properties in Global Preferences.

  • Project: Displays the project where the experiment is located.

  • Experiment: Displays the experiment where the crystal is found.

  • Protein: Displays the protein(s) the crystal is made of.

  • Owner: Displays the owner of the experiment.

  • Barcode, Well & Drop: Displays the crystal’s experiment barcode, well, and drop.

  • Synchrotron Trip: Displays the synchrotron trip to which the crystal is assigned. Assigning a crystal to a synchrotron trip will automatically update this field.

  • Date Collected: Displays data collection date. This field is automatically generated when you click the Collected checkbox in the Synchrotron Trip Info submenu on the Synchrotron Trip page.

  • Date Frozen: Select the crystal’s frozen date.

Protein Information section:

  • Protein Formulation: Displays the protein formulation used.

  • Protein Ingredients: Displays the protein ingredients used.

  • Standard Ingredients: Displays the ingredients from the ROCK MAKER database.

Cryoprotectant section: Displays the cryoprotectant(s) assigned to the crystal.

Soaking section: Displays the soaking ingredient(s) assigned to the crystal.

Notes: Allows you to type a note related to the harvested crystal.

Attachments: Enables you to attach files.

Related Topics: