title: Teaching electron diffraction and imaging of macromolecules.
abstract: Electron microscopic analysis can be used to determine the three-dimensional structures of macromolecules at resolutions ranging between 3 and 30 A. It differs from nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy or x-ray crystallography in that it allows an object's Coulomb potential functions to be determined directly from images and can be used to study relatively complex macromolecular assemblies in a crystalline or noncrystalline state. Electron imaging already has provided valuable structural information about various biological systems, including membrane proteins, protein-nucleic acid complexes, contractile and motile protein assemblies, viruses, and transport complexes for ions or macromolecules. This article, organized as a series of lectures, presents the biophysical principles of three-dimensional analysis of objects possessing different symmetries.
authors.affiliation: Werna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.forename: B V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Prasad
mesh_terms: D001703:Biophysics / Q000193:education*; D003461:Crystallography; D004500:Education, Graduate; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008958:Models, Molecular
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances