Electron tomography

Basic principle of tomography: superposition free tomographic cross sections S1 and S2 compared with the projected image P

Electron tomography (ET) is a tomography technique for obtaining detailed 3D structures[1] of sub-cellular, macro-molecular, or materials specimens. Electron tomography is an extension of traditional transmission electron microscopy and uses a transmission electron microscope to collect the data. In the process, a beam of electrons is passed through the sample at incremental degrees of rotation around the center of the target sample. This information is collected and used to assemble a three-dimensional image of the target. For biological applications, the typical resolution of ET systems[2] are in the 5–20 nm range, suitable for examining supra-molecular multi-protein structures, although not the secondary and tertiary structure of an individual protein or polypeptide.[3][4] Recently, atomic resolution in 3D electron tomography reconstructions has been demonstrated.[5][6]

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  2. ^ R. A. Crowther; D. J. DeRosier; A. Klug (1970). "The Reconstruction of a Three-Dimensional Structure from Projections and its Application to Electron Microscopy". Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A. 317 (1530): 319–340. Bibcode:1970RSPSA.317..319C. doi:10.1098/rspa.1970.0119. S2CID 122980366.
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  4. ^ Mastronarde, D. N. (1997). "Dual-Axis Tomography: An Approach with Alignment Methods That Preserve Resolution". Journal of Structural Biology. 120 (3): 343–352. doi:10.1006/jsbi.1997.3919. PMID 9441937.
  5. ^ Y. Yang; et al. (2017). "Deciphering chemical order/disorder and material properties at the single-atom level". Nature. 542 (7639): 75–79. arXiv:1607.02051. Bibcode:2017Natur.542...75Y. doi:10.1038/nature21042. PMID 28150758. S2CID 4464276.
  6. ^ Scott, M. C.; Chen, C. C.; Mecklenburg, M.; Zhu, C.; Xu, R.; Ercius, P.; Dahmen, U.; Regan, B. C.; Miao, J. (2012). "Electron tomography at 2.4-ångström resolution" (PDF). Nature. 483 (7390): 444–7. Bibcode:2012Natur.483..444S. doi:10.1038/nature10934. PMID 22437612. S2CID 1600103.