Eliminating effects of particle adsorption to the air/water interface in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy: Bacterial RNA polymerase and CHAPSO.

ABSTRACT: Preferred particle orientation presents a major challenge for many single particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) samples. Orientation bias limits the angular information used to generate three-dimensional maps and thus affects the reliability and interpretability of the structural models. The primary cause of preferred orientation is presumed to be due to adsorption of the particles at the air/water interface during cryo-EM grid preparation. To ameliorate this problem, detergents are often added to cryo-EM samples to alter the properties of the air/water interface. We have found that many bacterial transcription complexes suffer severe orientation bias when examined by cryo-EM. The addition of non-ionic detergents, such as NP-40, does not remove the orientation bias but the Zwitter-io

SUBMITTER: Chen J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7153306 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan-Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature