Three-dimensional visualization of the molecular architecture of cell-cell junctions in situ by cryo-electron tomography of vitreous sections.

Cryo-electron tomography of vitreous sections is currently the only method for visualizing the eukaryotic ultrastructure at close to native state with molecular resolution. Here, we describe the detailed procedure of how to prepare suitable vitreous sections from mammalian skin for cryo-electron tomography, how to align the projection images of the tilt-series, and finally how to perform sub-tomogram averaging on macromolecular complexes with periodic arrangement such as desmosomes.