Stowell M H, Miyazawa A, Unwin N
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 1998 Oct;8(5):595-600. doi: 10.1016/s0959-440x(98)80150-4.
Electron microscopy is undergoing a mini-renaissance, as a number of biological systems are yielding to higher resolution analysis as a result of advances in instrumentation, specimen preparation and image-processing technology. The atomic structure of tubulin has now been solved, crucial elements of secondary structure have recently been revealed in several membrane proteins (rhodopsin, gap junctions, aquaporin, and Ca2+ and H+ ATPases) and in a virus particle, and macromolecular complexes are being seen in increasingly fine detail. This growth has been enhanced further by the ability to combine structures of macromolecular complexes derived by electron microscopy with X-ray structures of their components, in order to reconstruct molecular machines and large multiprotein complexes in immense detail.
电子显微镜正经历一场小型复兴，因为随着仪器设备、样本制备和图像处理技术的进步，许多生物系统正能够接受更高分辨率的分析。微管蛋白的原子结构现已得到解析，几种膜蛋白（视紫红质、间隙连接蛋白、水通道蛋白以及钙离子和氢离子ATP酶）和一种病毒颗粒的二级结构关键元件最近也已被揭示，并且大分子复合物正呈现出越来越精细的细节。通过将电子显微镜得出的大分子复合物结构与其组分的X射线结构相结合，以便极其详细地重建分子机器和大型多蛋白复合物，这种发展得到了进一步推动。
