Tag: cryo electron microscopy

Cryo-electron microscopy enables the profiling of molecular interactions between macromolecular complexes acting on DNA

December 18, 2019

DNA is a long molecule encoding genetic information. In its full length, it could not be encapsulated within the cell. Hence, proteins such as histone are important players in spooling and condensing DNA into structures known as nucleosomes that facilitate the packaging of long DNA molecules into structures small enough to fit inside individual cells. … More Cryo-electron microscopy enables the profiling of molecular interactions between macromolecular complexes acting on DNA

Extension of nuclear magnetic resonance to the third and fourth dimensions provide higher resolution models of proteins

December 16, 2019

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a common tool for structural elucidation of organic molecules in chemistry. But the technique has increasingly found use in determining the structures of complex proteins. More recently, extension of the method to the third and fourth dimension has improved the resolution of protein structures to atomic level, and may provide … More Extension of nuclear magnetic resonance to the third and fourth dimensions provide higher resolution models of proteins

Gas phase structural biology has emerged as a new technique for analysing large membrane bound protein complexes

November 2, 2019

Amongst proteins, membrane bound large protein-based complexes remain hard to image and whose structure remain relatively difficult to interrogate by current analytical tools. Pertinent questions of interest include the structure of the various protein subunits and macromolecular complex, as well as the stoichiometric ratio of different protein subunits in the complex. Methods available for determining … More Gas phase structural biology has emerged as a new technique for analysing large membrane bound protein complexes

Combining different biological information in integrative structural biology

October 31, 2019

Structure of enzymes and biomolecules define their function. Hence, biologists have been fascinated by the structure of proteins and biomolecules given that rich amount of biological information could be gleaned from structural data. But, how do biologists determine the structure of biomolecules such as proteins and enzymes? Is it through a one-dimensional analysis of the … More Combining different biological information in integrative structural biology

Catalogue of protein structures in Protein Data Bank provides important input information for statistical modelling of protein sequence-structure correlations

August 25, 2019

Modern biology is awashed with data coming from various omics tools and technologies ranging from genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics. However, one area that has not benefit as much from the biological data revolution is structural biology. While it is true that contemporary structural biology techniques such as cryo-electron microscopy generates large amount of data … More Catalogue of protein structures in Protein Data Bank provides important input information for statistical modelling of protein sequence-structure correlations

Images of protein molecules in different orientations help recreate a three-dimensional model of a protein from cryo-electron microscopy

July 10, 2019

Cryo-electron microscopy has emerged to be an important tool in structural biology with imaging resolution that rivals that available from the gold standard approach, X-ray crystallography. A key attribute of the approach involves the use of liquid ethane to rapidly freeze down protein samples without the formation of ice crystals. In this way, protein molecules … More Images of protein molecules in different orientations help recreate a three-dimensional model of a protein from cryo-electron microscopy

Cryo-electron microscopy elucidation of protein structure at high resolution

April 23, 2019

Article in Nature, Vol. 531, 3 March 2016, pp. 114, “Cryo-electron microscopy structure of a coronavirus spike glycoprotein trimer”   Summary of article: Single molecule cryo-electron microscopy together with homology modelling was used in reconstructing a 4 A resolution model of the coronavirus spike glycoprotein trimer.   Comment: Cryo-electron microscopy has gained significant improvement in … More Cryo-electron microscopy elucidation of protein structure at high resolution

Direct electron detection revolutionizes cryo-electron microscopy

January 21, 2019

Electron beams are used in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to probe the structure of molecules through the generation of scattering and diffraction patterns of electrons after they have interacted with the molecule. However, a key difficulty has been the detection of the scattering and diffraction patterns of electron. The first approach used was film. However, film … More Direct electron detection revolutionizes cryo-electron microscopy

How do we obtain structural information of protein?

January 12, 2018

Readers would often find scientific papers describing the structure of a single protein or molecule. However, given that we do not have the capability of manipulating single protein or molecule with ease, how do we image a single protein or molecule to obtain its structural information?   The answer lies in the use of X-ray … More How do we obtain structural information of protein?

Computer modelling for fitting possible structures to diffraction data

November 28, 2017

Modern structural biology is a combination of diffraction experiments using X-rays or electron, and computer simulation for fitting possible structures to the diffraction data.   Specifically, after protein crystallization and determination of structure through X-ray diffraction or cryo-electron microscopy, the resulting data remains difficult to understand. Thus, molecular simulation tools such as molecular dynamics are … More Computer modelling for fitting possible structures to diffraction data