Biological imaging by soft x-ray diffraction microscopy.
We have used the method of x-ray diffraction microscopy to image the complex-valued exit wave of an intact and unstained yeast cell. The images of the freeze-dried cell, obtained by using 750-eV x-rays from different angular orientations, portray several of the cell's major internal components to 30-nm resolution. The good agreement among the independently recovered structures demonstrates the accuracy of the imaging technique. To obtain the best possible reconstructions, we have implemented procedures for handling noisy and incomplete diffraction data, and we propose a method for determining the reconstructed resolution. This work represents a previously uncharacterized application of x-ray diffraction microscopy to a specimen of this complexity and provides confidence in the feasibility of the ultimate goal of imaging biological specimens at 10-nm resolution in three dimensions.
Shapiro
David
D
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800, USA.
Thibault
Pierre
P
Beetz
Tobias
T
Elser
Veit
V
Howells
Malcolm
M
Jacobsen
Chris
C
Kirz
Janos
J
Lima
Enju
E
Miao
Huijie
H
Neiman
Aaron M
AM
Sayre
David
D
D005612:Freeze Drying; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008853:Microscopy; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction