A unified framework for packing deformable and non-deformable subcellular structures in crowded cryo-electron tomogram simulation

摘要

Cryo-electron tomography (Cryo-ET), which was first proposed in 1970s, is now a popular and powerful imaging technique in the fields of life and medical sciences [1–3]. A series of two-dimensional images recorded by electron microscopes are collected to generate 3D reconstruction of macromolecules and then used to analyze the architecture of these structures. In traditional sample preparation process, due to the incompatibility with vacuum, water in sample cells tends to boil out and leads to unacceptable explosions. This seriously effected the efficiency of the sample preparation process and the accuracy of result data. In order to extract the cellular structure more accurately with higher resolution, cryo-electron tomography has emerged, which prepares samples at low temperatures and is able to record the cellular structure in a natural state [4].