Cryogenic electron ptychographic single particle analysis with wide bandwidth information transfer

Pei X., Zhou L., Huang C., Boyce M., Kim JS., Liberti E., Hu Y., Sasaki T., Nellist PD., Zhang P., Stuart DI., Kirkland AI., Wang P.

AbstractAdvances in cryogenic transmission electron microscopy have revolutionised the determination of many macromolecular structures at atomic or near-atomic resolution. This method is based on conventional defocused phase contrast imaging. However, it has limitations of weaker contrast for small biological molecules embedded in vitreous ice, in comparison with cryo-ptychography, which shows increased contrast. Here we report a single-particle analysis based on the use of ptychographic reconstruction data, demonstrating that three dimensional reconstructions with a wide information transfer bandwidth can be recovered by Fourier domain synthesis. Our work suggests future applications in otherwise challenging single particle analyses, including small macromolecules and heterogeneous or flexible particles. In addition structure determination in situ within cells without the requirement for protein purification and expression may be possible.

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-38268-0

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nature Communications

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Publication Date

25/05/2023

Volume

14

Permalink Original publication