Novel techniques in electron microscopy

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Volumn 14, Issue 5, 2004, Pages 591-598

  Leapman, Richard D ^a  

^a OFS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CADMIUM; CALCIUM ION; DNA; PHOSPHORUS; PROTEIN; RNA; SELENIUM;

CALCIUM CELL LEVEL; CELL LABELING; ELECTRON ENERGY LOSS SPECTROSCOPY; ELECTRON MICROSCOPE; ELECTRON MICROSCOPY; FILTER; INTRACELLULAR SPACE; MACROMOLECULE; MOLECULE; NERVE CELL; NERVOUS SYSTEM; NONHUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; PROCESS DEVELOPMENT; PROTEIN DETERMINATION; REVIEW; ROENTGEN SPECTROSCOPY; SYNAPSE; TECHNIQUE; THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGING; TOMOGRAPHY;

ANIMALS; HUMANS; IMAGE PROCESSING, COMPUTER-ASSISTED; INTRACELLULAR MEMBRANES; MACROMOLECULAR SUBSTANCES; MICROSCOPY, ELECTRON; MICROTOMY; NERVOUS SYSTEM; NEURONS; SPECTROMETRY, X-RAY EMISSION;

EID: 5344226264     PISSN: 09594388     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2004.08.004     Document Type: Review

References (38)

1. J. Frank Electron Tomography: Three-dimensional Imaging with the Transmission Electron Microscope 1992 Plenum Press New York
2. D.N. Mastronarde Dual axis tomography: an approach with alignment methods that preserve resolution J Struct Biol 120 1997 343 352
3. M.L. Harlow, D. Ress, A. Stoschek, R.M. Marshall, and U.J. McMahan The architecture of active zone material at the frog's neuromuscular junction Nature 409 2001 479 484
4. D. Lenzi, J. Crum, M.H. Ellisman, and W.M. Roberts Depolarization redistributes synaptic membrane and creates a gradient of vesicles on the synaptic body at a ribbon synapse Neuron 36 2002 649 659
5. 2+/ calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II at the PSD J Neurosci 23 2003 11270 11278
6. T. Müller-Reichert, H. Hohenberg, E.T. O'Toole, and K. McDonald Cryoimmobilization and three-dimensional visualization of C. elegans ultrastructure J Microsc 212 2003 71 80
7. K. Grünewald, P. Desai, D.C. Winkler, J.B. Heymann, D.M. Belnap, W. Baumeister, and A.C. Steven Three-dimensional structure of herpes simplex virus from cryo-electron tomography Science 302 2003 1396 1398 This report describes the first application of cryo-electron tomography to determine the three-dimensional structure of an intact frozen-hydrated virus, including the nucleocapsid, the tegument and the outer envelope. An astonishing level of molecular detail is uncovered, in part, by averaging symmetrical sections of the structure. The study provides a glimpse of the level of detail that might eventually be obtainable from regions of frozen-hydrated eukaryotic cells.
8. K. Grünewald, O. Medalia, A. Gross, A.C. Steven, and W. Baumeister Prospects of electron cryotomography to visualize macromolecular complexes inside cellular compartments: implications of crowding Biophys Chem 100 2003 577 591 This is an excellent review of the current state of the art in cryo-electron tomography of prokaryotic and eukyotic cells. The study indicates that although prokaryotes are small enough to allow examination of whole cells, their macromolecules are generally more crowded than for eukaryotic cells, and therefore tomographic reconstructions of eukaryotes can be easier to segment. The study also shows that the technique can be applied successfully to relatively flat eukaryotic cells, including neurons that are sufficiently thin in places to allow high-resolution cryo-electron tomography without the need for sectioning.
9. T. Wagenknecht, C.E. Hsieh, B.K. Rath, S. Fleischer, and M. Marko Electron tomography of frozen-hydrated isolated triad junctions Biophys J 83 2002 2491 2501
10. A.C. Steven, and U. Aebi The next ice age: cryo-electron tomography of intact cells Trends Cell Biol 13 2003 107 110 This is an excellent review article on the potential of cryo-electron tomography for revealing the three-dimensional internal structure of eukaryotic cells in their native states at molecular resolution. The review points out the technical challenges and indicates what improvements are needed in the future.
11. A.S. Frangakis, J. Böhm, F. Förster, S. Nickell, D. Nicastro, D. Typke, R. Hegerl, and W. Baumeister Identification of macromolecular complexes in cryoelectron tomograms of phantom cells Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99 2002 14153 14158
12. O. Medalia, I. Weber, A.S. Frangakis, D. Nicastro, G. Gerisch, and W. Baumeister Macromolecular architecture in eukaryotic cells visualized by cryoelectron tomography Science 298 2002 1209 1213
13. C. Hsieh, M. Marko, J. Frank, and C.A. Mannella Electron tomographic analysis of frozen-hydrated tissue sections J Struct Biol 138 2002 63 73
14. A. Al-Amoudi, J. Dubochet, H. Gnaegi, W. Lüthi, and D. Studer An oscillating cryo-knife reduces cutting-induced deformation of vitreous ultrathin cryosections J Microsc 212 2003 26 33
15. Matias VRF, A. Al-Amoudi, J. Dubochet, and T.J. Beveridge Cryo-transmission electron microscopy of frozen-hydrated sections of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa J Bacteriol 185 2003 6112 6118
16. Zhang P, Bos E, Heymann J, Gnaegi H, Kessel M, Peters PJ, Subramaniam S: Direct visualization of receptor arrays in frozen-hydrated sections and plunge-frozen specimens of E. coli engineered to overproduce the chemotaxis receptor Tsr. J Microsc 2004, in press. These authors use a novel diamond knife with a 25° angle to cut thin, nominally 20 nm to 60 nm, cryosections of bacterial cells overproducing the chemotaxis receptor receptor Tsr. Remarkably, the structure is very well preserved and surface crevasses are almost absent. It is expected that tomographic reconstructions from cryosections of this quality will provide significantly improved spatial resolution and be important in applications to neurobiology.
17. W. He, P. Cowin, and D.L. Stokes Untangling desmosomal knots with electron tomography Science 302 2003 109 113 This work is an excellent example of how electron tomography can be applied to determine the arrangement of macromolecular assemblies in a cellular structure in tissue that has been prepared by high-pressure freezing and freeze substitution. It describes the arrangement of cadherin molecules in desmosomes from mouse epidermis. X-ray structures of cadherin molecules are fitted to the electron tomographic reconstruction and a model is suggested for the intermolecular interactions.
18. S. Subramaniam, and J.L.S. Milne Three-dimensional electron microscopy at molecular resolution Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct 33 2004 141 155 This is an up-to-date review that puts cryo-electron tomography in the wider context of cryo-electron microscopy of macromolecular complexes. The importance of automation in acquiring data is emphasized.
19. B.F. McEwen, K.H. Downing, and R.M. Glaeser The relevance of dose-fractionation in tomography of radiation-sensitive specimens Ultramicroscopy 60 1995 357 373
20. P. Zhang, M.J. Borgnia, P. Mooney, D. Shi, M. Pan, P.O. Herron, A. Mao, D. Brogan, J.L.S. Milne, and S. Subramaniam Automated image acquisition and processing using a new generation of 4K x 4K CCD cameras for cryo electron microscopic studies of macromolecular assemblies J Struct Biol 143 2003 135 144
21. A.R. Faruqi, D.M. Cattermole, R. Henderson, B. Mikulec, and C. Raeburn Evaluation of a hybrid pixel detector for electron microscopy Ultramicroscopy 94 2003 263 276
22. L. Reimer Energy-Filtering Transmission Electron Microscopy 1995 Springer Berlin
23. R.D. Leapman, E. Kocsis, G. Zhang, T.L. Talbot, and P. Laquerriere Three-dimensional distributions of elements in biological samples by energy-filtered electron tomography Ultramicroscopy 100 2004 115 125
24. R. Danev, and K. Nagayama Transmission electron microscopy with Zernike phase plate Ultramicroscopy 88 2001 243 252
25. Hosokawa F, Danev R, Arai Y, Nagayama K: Transfer doublet and an elaborated phase plate holder for a 120 kV electron-phase microscope. J Electr Microsc 2004, in press. This study concerns the design and application of a phase plate consisting of a thin amorphous carbon film with a micrometer diameter hole at its center and supported over a copper grid. Electron optically, the phase plate is situated at a height conjugate to the objective aperture by the addition of extra lenses below the objective, and it is heated to avoid contamination. Using the phase plate with the objective lens in focus, it is demonstrated that images with high contrast can be obtained from biological specimens. Advantages of the phase plate are the simpler contrast transfer function, which makes images easier to interpret, and the availability of low-resolution and high-resolution information in the same micrograph.
26. G. Gaietta, T.J. Deerinck, S.R. Adams, J. Bouwer, O. Tour, D.W. Laird, G.E. Sosinsky, R.Y. Tsien, and M.H. Ellisman Multicolor and electron microscopic imaging of connexin trafficking Science 296 2002 503 507
27. G.E. Sosinsky, G.M. Gaietta, G. Hand, T.J. Deerinck, A. Han, M. Mackey, S.R. Adams, J. Bouwer, R.Y. Tsien, and M.H. Ellisman Tetracysteine genetic tags complexed with biarsenical ligands as a tool for investigating gap junction structure and dynamics Cell Commun Adhes 10 2003 181 186 This is a good review article on the application of the membrane-permeant biarsenical ligand ReAsH to track a protein of interest by correlative light and electron microscopy of intact cells. ReAsH becomes highly fluorescent when it binds to a tetracysteine motif appended to a protein of interest by recombinant techniques, and it also photoconverts diaminobenzidine to give an osmiophilic precipitate that is visible by EM.
28. Y. Ren, M.J. Kruhlak, and D.P. Bazett-Jones Same serial section correlative light and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy J Histochem Cytochem 51 2003 605 612
29. R. Nisman, G. Dellaire, Y. Ren, R. Li, and D.P. Bazett-Jones Application of quantum dots as probes for correlative fluorescence, conventional, and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy J Histochem Cytochem 52 2004 13 18 This study concerns the application of luminescent semiconductor (cadmium selenide) QDs as a new class of fluorescent label to map proteins in cells. The electron density and elemental composition of the QD makes them suitable for imaging by conventional transmission EM as well as by energy-filtered transmission EM. It is shown that streptavidin-conjugated QDs can label specific nuclear proteins by EM and provide correlative fluorescence images. If used with immunogold techniques, QDs provide the possibility of multiple protein labeling. In this study, the QDs are used to label proteins on the surface of plastic sections. It has not yet been possible to use them to label proteins inside living cells.
30. G. Dellaire, R. Nisman, and D.P. Bazett-Jones Correlative light and electron spectroscopic imaging of chromatin in situ Methods Enzymol 375 2004 456 478
31. J.A. Hunt, and D.B. Williams Electron energy-loss spectrum-imaging Ultramicroscopy 38 1991 47 73
32. K. Suenaga, M. Tencé, C. Mory, C. Colliex, H. Kato, T. Okazaki, H. Shinohara, K. Hirahara, S. Bandow, and S. Iijima Element-selective single atom imaging Science 290 2000 2280 2282
33. A. LeFurgey, S. Davilla, A. Kopf, J. Sommer, and P. Ingram Real-time quantitative elemental analysis and mapping: microchemical imaging in cell physiology J Microsc 165 1992 191 223
34. 2+ and other ions in cardiac muscle.
35. i -and location-dependent transition from endoplasmic reticulum Ca accumulation to net Ca release J Gen Physiol 118 2001 101 112
36. N.B. Pivovarova, L.D. Pozzo-Miller, J. Hongpaisan, and S.B. Andrews Correlated calcium uptake and release by mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum of CA3 hippocampal dendrites after afferent synaptic stimulation J Neurosci 22 2002 10653 10661
37. R.D. Leapman Detecting single atoms of calcium and iron in biological structures by electron energy-loss spectrum-imaging J Microsc 210 2003 5 15 This study shows that detection limits approaching the values predicted from the physics of electron scattering can be realized using a focused probe in a scanning transmission electron microscope equipped with a field-emission source and an optimized electron energy-loss spectrometer. Elemental maps demonstrate that single atom detection is achievable for iron and calcium in suitably thin specimens, which suggests that it might be possible to address a new range of applications.
38. P.E. Batson, N. Dellby, and O.L. Krivanek Sub-ångstrom resolution using aberration corrected electron optics Nature 418 2002 617 620