Conical Tomography: A Method for the Study of Macromolecular Assemblies

摘要

We have developed conical tomography for the transmission electron microscope to study a wide range of structures at molecular resolution. Unlike the other related types of tomography (single and double-axis tilt), conical tomography has a higher throughput and more importantly, produces reconstructions that are isotropic in the x-y plane with a resolution of 2-3nm. Using a custom made tilting and rotating stage, we have been able to collect complete conical series from a variety of sources, including thin sections and freeze-fractured replicas of chemical synapses from the rat somato-sensory cortex, isolated synaptic vesicle anti-SV2 complexes.