Keeping a promise of the XFEL: crystallography without crystals

Crystallography without crystals. I. The common-line method for assembling a three-dimensional diffraction volume from single-particle scattering

The capabilities and limitations are demonstrated and discussed of a common-line method of assembling a three-dimensional oversampled diffraction data volume suitable for structure solution from diffraction patterns of randomly oriented protein molecules obtained with a fourth-generation X-ray source. The method requires a detected photon count of 10 per pulse/pixel, about three orders of magnitude greater than anticipated for a 500 kDa protein.