Name: cryo-em for native biomolecule imaging
Uploaded: 2023-04-30T12:01:32.000Z
Duration: 1 min 28 s
Channel: JoVE

초저온 전자 현미경 또는 Cryo-EM은 -150°C 미만의 극저온에서 동결된 생물학적 시료를 검사합니다.
기존 EM과 달리 Cryo-EM은 시료를 고정하고 탈수할 필요가 없어 생물학적 구조의 기본 상태를 보존하는 데 도움이 됩니다.
EM에 사용되는 고에너지 전자는 샘플의 화학 결합을 손상시킬 수 있습니다. 샘플을 동결하면 이러한 손상을 방지하는 데 도움이 되어 거의 원자 해상도에 가까운 이미지를 얻을 수 있습니다.
Cryo-EM에서는 용액 속의 작은 생물학적 시료가 액체 에탄에서 빠르게 동결되는 유리화됩니다. 유리화(Vitrification)는 시료를 얇은 물층에 원래 상태로 고정시키고 시료의 물은 얼음 결정이 나타나지 않고 유리와 같은 상태를 형성합니다.
세포 및 조직과 같은 두꺼운 샘플은 얇은 액체 층에서 유리화될 수 없습니다. 따라서 이러한 시료는 유리체 절편의 Cryo-EM 방법을 사용하여 연구할 수 있습니다. 이 방법에서는 먼저 고압 동결로 샘플을 유리화한 다음 cryo-EM을 사용하여 관찰하기 전에 -140°C에서 초박형 절편으로 절단합니다.

극저온전자현미경

Cryo-electron Microscopy

기존 전자현미경(EM)에는 생물학적 시료의 탈수, 고정 및 염색이 포함되며, 이로 인해 생물학적 분자의 기본 상태가 왜곡되고 여러 가지 인공물이 생성됩니다. 또한, 고에너지 전자빔은 시료를 손상시켜 고해상도 이미지를 얻기 어렵게 만듭니다. 이러한 문제는 냉동 샘플과 보다 부드러운 전자빔을 사용하는 극저온-EM을 사용하여 해결할 수 있습니다. 이 기술은 쟈크 뒤보셰, 요하킴 프랭크, 리차드 핸더슨이 개발하여 2017년 노벨 화학상을 수상했습니다.

X선 회절 및 핵자기공명(NMR) 기술은 생체분자의 고해상도 구조를 얻거나 구조 변화를 연구하는 데에도 사용됩니다. 그러나 X선 구조를 얻으려면 분자가 결정화되어야 하는데, 이는 매번 가능하지 않을 수 있습니다. 분자가 결정화 가능하더라도 결정화 과정은 더 이상 기본 구조를 대표하지 않는 생체분자 구조를 변경할 수 있습니다. Cryo-EM은 결정화된 샘플이 필요하지 않으며, 원래 상태의 분자 움직임이나 생체 분자의 상호 작용을 시각화할 수도 있습니다. 마찬가지로 NMR 기술은 상대적으로 작은 수용성 단백질에만 제한되며 세포막에 내장된 비극성 단백질에는 적합하지 않습니다. 반면, 저온 EM은 더 큰 단백질, 막 결합 수용체 또는 생체분자 복합체에 대한 연구를 가능하게 합니다.

Cryo-EM은 생체분자의 구조, 기능 및 상호작용을 연구하기 위해 생화학에서 광범위하게 사용되고 있습니다. Cryo-EM을 사용하면 바이러스와 같은 감염원을 식별하고 연구할 수 있습니다. 예를 들어, 브라질에서 지카 바이러스가 발생했을 때, cryo-EM을 활용하여 바이러스 구조의 3D 이미지를 생성하여 잠재적인 항바이러스제 표적을 식별할 수 있었습니다.

기존의 전자 현미경 (EM)은 생물학적 샘플의 탈수, 고정 및 염색을 포함하며, 이는 생물학적 샘플의 기본 상태를 왜곡합니다.

Education

교육

JoVE Core

Cell Biology

세포생물학

Unit 1

제1단원

Visualizing Cells, Tissues, and Molecules

세포, 조직 및 분자의 시각화

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

주요 용어 및 개념

cryo-em for native biomolecule imaging

Cryo-EM, or cryo-electron microscopy, lets scientists image biomolecules in their frozen, native state. It avoids the dehydration, fixation, and staining used in conventional electron microscopy, which can distort samples and create artifacts. It also reduces damage from the electron beam by using gentler imaging conditions.

This method is useful when other structure tools have limits. X-ray diffraction needs a molecule to form a crystal, and that is not always possible. Even when crystallization works, it can change the biomolecule’s structure so it no longer matches the native form.

Cryo-EM also fills gaps left by nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR. NMR is mainly used for relatively small soluble proteins and is not suited to non-polar proteins in cell membranes. Cryo-EM can be used to study larger proteins, membrane-bound receptors, and biomolecular complexes.

Researchers use cryo-EM to study biomolecule structure, function, and interactions. It can also help identify and analyze infectious agents such as viruses. During the Zika virus outbreak in Brazil, cryo-EM was used to build a 3D image of the virus so potential antiviral drug targets could be found. The technique was developed by Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson, who shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Cryo-EM for Native Biomolecule Imaging

imaging biological samples with optical microscopy

imaging-biological-samples-with-optical-microscopy

How Light Microscopes Bring Samples Into View

Optical microscopy uses light and lenses to make tiny biological samples visible. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek built the first compound optical microscope in the 17th century to view blood cells, bacteria, and yeast cells. In 1830, Joseph Jackson Lister developed an essentially modern light microscope. During the 20th century, microscopes gained better magnification and resolution. A sample is placed on a glass slide and clipped onto the stage, which is the flat platform of the microscope. The...

phase contrast and differential interference contrast microscopy

phase-contrast-and-differential-interference-contrast-microscopy

Microscope Contrast for Live, Unstained Cells

Phase-contrast and differential interference contrast microscopy help scientists see live cells without stains. Both methods boost contrast so thin, transparent structures become easier to study under the microscope. Phase-contrast microscopes use interference between light that passes straight through a cell and light that is refracted by cell parts. The microscope uses an annular stop in the condenser to make a hollow cone of light. The objective lens also contains a phase plate with a phase...

fixation and sectioning

Microscope Slide Prep and Staining

Microscope slide preparation includes wet mounts, fixation, and staining. These steps help make specimens easier to see under a light microscope. They also help preserve cells and highlight important structures. A wet mount is the simplest slide preparation. The specimen is placed in a drop of liquid on the slide. A liquid sample can be added directly with a dropper, and a solid sample, such as a skin scraping, can be placed on the slide before the liquid is added. The liquid is sometimes...

immunofluorescence microscopy

Fluorescent Antibody Staining in Cells

Fluorescent antibody staining uses a fluorescence microscope to make cells and microbes visible in bright colors against a dark background. The microscope works with fluorochromes, which are fluorescent dyes that absorb energy from a light source and then give off visible light. Some fluorochromes are natural, such as chlorophylls. Others are added to the specimen to improve contrast. Common examples of fluorochromes include Texas red and FITC. The method can also use nucleic acid dyes such as...

immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry

immunocytochemistry-and-immunohistochemistry

Antibody Staining in Cells and Tissues

Immunocytochemistry (ICC) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) use antibodies to detect specific proteins or antigens in samples. ICC focuses on individual cells, such as blood cells and stem cells. IHC is used for tissue samples. These methods were first published by Albert Coons in 1941, when they were used to detect pneumococcal antigen in mouse tissue sections from mice infected with Pneumococcus. Both techniques can produce either a colored signal or a fluorescent signal. Enzyme-conjugated...

confocal fluorescence microscopy

Confocal Microscopy for Sharp Cell Images

Confocal microscopy is an advanced imaging method used to capture sharp fluorescence images. Its main advantage is that it blocks out-of-focus light from the sample with pinholes. That helps produce high-resolution images with strong contrast. Unlike a standard optical microscope, a confocal microscope uses a focused laser beam to scan the sample surface at different z-planes. This makes it especially useful for thick specimens, such as biofilms. These samples can often be examined alive and...

protein dynamics in living cells

Fluorescent Methods for Protein Movement

Protein movement in living cells can be measured with fluorescence-based methods such as FRAP, FRET, and PET. These techniques help scientists track how proteins move, interact, and change distance inside the cell. Fluorescent recovery after photobleaching, or FRAP, measures protein movement rates within the cell. In this method, a small region is exposed to a strong laser beam. The beam permanently bleaches fluorophore-tagged proteins in that area. Over time, bleached proteins diffuse away...

total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

total-internal-reflection-fluorescence-microscopy

Surface-Only Imaging with TIRF Microscopy

Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, or TIRF, is a microscope method used to view fluorophores near a solid surface with a higher refractive index, such as a glass coverslip. It is useful when scientists want to study signals close to the cell surface. TIRF works when light from a medium with a lower refractive index, such as air, hits the glass coverslip at a critical angle. Instead of entering the glass, the light undergoes total internal reflection. This reflection creates an...

atomic force microscopy

Atomic Force Microscopy for Surface Mapping

Atomic force microscopy is used to map the surface details of materials. It can examine ceramics, glass, polymers, and biological samples. The method gives far more resolution than an optical imaging system and produces three-dimensional surface profiles instead of flat 2D images. The probe is the key part of an AFM setup. It includes the cantilever and tip assembly, and it is also the part that is replaced most often. Constant contact with samples wears down the tip, so probe choice depends...

super-resolution fluorescence microscopy

Sharper Cell Images with Fluorescence Microscopy

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy gives sharper images than standard fluorescence microscopy by reducing the point spread function, or PSF. The PSF is the light pattern from a point source that makes it look blurred. Because of this blur, each fluorescent spot appears larger than it really is. Nearby fluorophores can also overlap through their PSFs and make the image less clear. Several super-resolution methods have been developed to improve image detail. Photoactivated localization...

overview of electron microscopy

Electron Microscopy: TEM vs SEM

Electron microscopy uses electrons instead of visible light to make images with much higher detail than a light microscope. Visible light limits the resolution of light microscopes, which usually magnify up to 1000X, and sometimes up to 1500X. Electrons have a much shorter wavelength, about 0.005 nm, so they can produce resolution as fine as 0.05 nm. An electron microscope can also magnify images up to 2,000,000X and reveal subcellular structures and some molecular structures, including single...

scanning electron microscopy

How SEM Reveals Surface Details

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) reveals the surface details of a sample with an electron beam. The beam scans across the sample in a two-dimensional pattern. SEM can image areas from about 1 centimeter down to 5 micrometers wide. SEM is useful for studying bacteria, viruses, tissues, and larger samples such as insects. Conventional SEM can produce magnification from 20X to 30,000X. It also offers spatial resolution of about 50 to 100 nanometers. The process starts when the electron gun...

transmission electron microscopy

How TEM Reveals Tiny Structures

Transmission electron microscopy uses electrons to reveal very small structures inside a specimen. The technique grew from the first electron microscope prototype developed in 1931 by physicist Ernst Ruska. He built on the idea that magnetic fields can direct an electron beam, just as lenses direct light in an optical microscope. In a transmission electron microscope, a hot tungsten element produces electrons. An electron gun then accelerates them with a potential difference, giving the beam...

preparation of samples for electron microscopy

preparation-of-samples-for-electron-microscopy

Electron Microscopy Sample Prep Methods

Electron microscopy sample prep methods help biological samples survive imaging in TEM and SEM. Before a specimen can be viewed, it must be fixed, or stabilized, so the electron beam does not damage it. It also must be dried well, or desiccated, because the microscope uses a vacuum. Fixation should happen as quickly as possible. Once a sample leaves its natural environment, its properties begin to change. In tissue samples, oxygen levels can drop and change the appearance of mitochondria. That...

immunogold electron microscopy

Immunogold Labeling in Electron Microscopy

Immunogold labeling in electron microscopy uses antibodies and tiny gold particles to find specific proteins in cells and tissues. The gold particles are very electron-dense, which means they show up clearly in electron microscope images. This gives researchers a high-resolution way to see where proteins are located and to compare their amounts under different stimulation conditions. The method can reveal proteins on the cell surface and inside cells. It has been used to study proteins...

cryo-electron microscopy

Cryo-EM, or cryo-electron microscopy, lets scientists image biomolecules in their frozen, native state. It avoids the dehydration, fixation, and staining used in conventional electron microscopy, which can distort samples and create artifacts. It also reduces damage from the electron beam by using gentler imaging conditions. This method is useful when other structure tools have limits. X-ray diffraction needs a molecule to form a crystal, and that is not always possible. Even when...

electron microscope tomography and single-particle reconstruction

electron-microscope-tomography-and-single-particle-reconstruction

3D Imaging with Electron Microscopy

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can build 3D images of biological samples. It does this with electron microscope tomography and single-particle reconstruction. Tomography can show cell parts or small cells in vivo, while single-particle reconstruction is used for macromolecules and macromolecular complexes in vitro only. Electron tomography can be done in TEM or in STEM, which stands for scanning transmission electron microscopy. STEM is mainly used for thick biological specimens. It...

key terms and concepts

Learn how cryo-EM images frozen biomolecules in native form, avoids crystal-making limits, and helps study proteins, membranes, and viruses.

Cryo-EM for Native Biomolecule Imaging | JoVE K12

cell biology

JoVE Core Cell Biology illustrates complex cellular processes in easy-to-understand yet comprehensive animated video lessons. This collection focuses on the essential components and functions of cells, including organelles and membranes, cellular transport, and cell energetics. It is complemented by scientist-in-action videos that demonstrate the application of cell biology in real-world research experiments.

Cryo-EM for Native Biomolecule Imaging

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