Improving the quality of electron tomography image volumes using pre-reconstruction filtering.
Electron tomography produces highly magnified 3D image volumes useful for investigating the structure and function of cellular components. Image quality is degraded by multiple scattering events and quantum noise, which depend on the angle at which individual tilt projections are collected. We have adapted a biomedical imaging approach to improve image quality by enhancing individual tilt projections prior to volumetric reconstruction. Specifically, we have developed a family of non-linear anisotropic diffusion (NAD) filters parameterized by the tilt angle. We give a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of our pre-processing approach and the NAD filter. We show an improvement in the reconstructed volumes for tomograms generated from both plastic-embedded and cryo-stabilized samples of malaria parasite-infected erythrocytes.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, 30 Flemington Road, Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia.
Mauro
M
Maiorca
Eric
E
Hanssen
Edmund
E
Kazmierczak
Bohumil
B
Maco
Misha
M
Kudryashev
Richard
R
Hall
Harry
H
Quiney
Leann
L
Tilley
D000465:Algorithms; D016880:Anisotropy; D055032:Electron Microscope Tomography / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000469:parasitology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000648:ultrastructure; D058996:Quality Improvement; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D034101:Sporozoites / Q000648:ultrastructure