Metallo-supramolecular branched polymer protects particles from air-water interface in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy
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Date
2024-01-09Type
- Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Recent technological breakthroughs in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) enable rapid atomic structure determination of biological macromolecules. A major bottleneck in the current single particle cryo-EM pipeline is the preparation of good quality frozen cryo-EM grids, which is mostly a trial-and-error process. Among many issues, preferred particle orientation and sample damage by air–water interface (AWI) are common practical problems. Here we report a method of applying metallo-supramolecular branched polymer (MSBP) in the cryo-sample preparation for high-resolution single-particle cryo-EM. Our data shows that MSBP keeps a majority of particles away from air–water interface and mitigates preferred orientation as verified by the analyses of apoferritin, hemagglutinin) trimer and various sample proteins. The use of MSBP is a simple method to improve particle distribution for high-resolution structure determination in single-particle cryo-EM. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000652352Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Communications BiologyVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
NatureMore
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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