title: Electron holographic observation for biological specimens: electron holography of bio-specimens.
abstract: Electron holography has been applied to the observation of biological filaments. The technique has some advantages over conventional imaging for observing weak-phase objects such as small unstained biological structures. To avoid artificial structural transformation of the sample owing to the interaction with the supporting film, a holey carbon film was used to support the filaments. A tobacco mosaic virus bridged over a hole was observed as a cylindrical shape; the contrast distribution across the filament represents its actual shape, which is difficult to obtain with conventional transmission electron microscopy. A number of technical limitations which at present prevent high-resolution structure analysis of biological macromolecules by electron holography are discussed in this report.
authors.affiliation: Tonomura Electron Wavefront Project, ERATO, Research Development Corporation of Japan, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aoyama
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ru
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D006696:Holography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D014027:Tobacco Mosaic Virus / Q000648:ultrastructure*