Three-dimensional reconstruction of biological macromolecular complexes from in-lens scanning electron micrographs

Woodward, J D; Wepf, R; Sewell, B T

Three-dimensional reconstruction of biological macromolecular complexes from in-lens scanning electron micrographs

Journal Article

2009

Journal Title

Journal of Microscopy

Link to Journal

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2818

Publisher

Wiley

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Abstract

Two helical samples: F-actin and the bacteriophage T4 tail sheath were reconstructed in three dimensions from contrast enhanced (rotational shadowing and negatively stained) in-lens cryo-field emission scanning electron micrographs, using the iterative real-space helical reconstruction method. The F-actin--and bacteriophage T4 reconstructions compare favourably to an atomic model refined against fibre diffraction data and a cryo-electron microscopy reconstruction, respectively. These results show that single-particle methods, developed for macromolecules imaged in the transmission electron microscope can be applied to cryo-field emission scanning electron micrographs data with appropriate symmetry.