Structural analysis of biological macromolecular assemblies by electron microscopic techniques

Abstract

The development of high resolution electron microscopic techniques and the introduction of quantitative image analysis has provided a direct basis for studying the structure of biological macromolecules. Apart from the determination of overall morphology, including 3-D image reconstruction, these techniques provide information on the internal architecture of biological macromolecular assemblies, the topography of functional sites, the interactions of their components and elemental microanalysis in situ. Thus, from a mere photographic recording system of the past, electron microscopy has evolved into a high resolution quantitative spectroscopic analytical method.