The Development of the Electron Microscope and of Electron Microscopy (Nobel Lecture)

Руска, Э.

doi:10.1002/anie.198705953

Cited by 64 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…In particular, the development of electron microscopy (EM) in the 1930s produced a wealth of new information about the ultrastructure of cells (1). For the first time, the structure of cell envelopes, internal organelles, cytoskeletal filaments, and even large macromolecular complexes like ribosomes became visible.…”

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confidence: 99%

Uncharacterized Bacterial Structures Revealed by Electron Cryotomography

et al. 2017

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Electron cryotomography (ECT) can reveal the native structure and arrangement of macromolecular complexes inside intact cells. This technique has greatly advanced our understanding of the ultrastructure of bacterial cells. We now view bacteria as structurally complex assemblies of macromolecular machines rather than as undifferentiated bags of enzymes. To date, our group has applied ECT to nearly 90 different bacterial species, collecting more than 15,000 cryotomograms. In addition to known structures, we have observed, to our knowledge, several uncharacterized features in these tomograms. Some are completely novel structures; others expand the features or species range of known structure types. Here, we present a survey of these uncharacterized bacterial structures in the hopes of accelerating their identification and study, and furthering our understanding of the structural complexity of bacterial cells.IMPORTANCE Bacteria are more structurally complex than is commonly appreciated. Here we present a survey of previously uncharacterized structures that we observed in bacterial cells by electron cryotomography, structures that will initiate new lines of research investigating their identities and roles.KEYWORDS bacteria, electron cryotomography, bacterial ultrastructure, uncharacterized structures, electron microscopy T he history of cell biology has been punctuated by advances in imaging technology. In particular, the development of electron microscopy (EM) in the 1930s produced a wealth of new information about the ultrastructure of cells (1). For the first time, the structure of cell envelopes, internal organelles, cytoskeletal filaments, and even large macromolecular complexes like ribosomes became visible. A further advance came in the 1980s and 1990s with the development of electron cryotomography (ECT) (2), which allows small cells to be imaged intact in 3D in a near-native, "frozen-hydrated" state to "macromolecular" (ϳ5 nm) resolution, without the limitations and artifacts of more traditional specimen-preparation methods (3).ECT has helped reveal the previously unappreciated complexity of "simple" bacterial cells. Our group has been using ECT to study bacteria for more than a decade, generating more than 15,000 tomograms of 88 different species. These tomograms have revealed new insights into, among other things, the bacterial cytoskeleton (4-7), cell wall architecture (8, 9), morphogenesis (10), metabolism (11), motility (12-15),

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confidence: 99%

Uncharacterized Bacterial Structures Revealed by Electron Cryotomography

et al. 2017

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“…The first transmission electron microscope was developed in the early 1930s by Ernst Ruska with his PhD supervisor, Max Knoll . This microscope had a much higher resolution than any of the light microscopes available at the time and promised to revolutionize many aspects of science, including cell biology and virology.…”

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Virus detection by transmission electron microscopy: Still useful for diagnosis and a plus for biosafety

Roingeard

Raynal

Eymieux

et al. 2018

Reviews in Medical Virology

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Summary Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is the only imaging technique allowing the direct visualization of viruses, due to its nanometer‐scale resolution. Between the 1960s and 1990s, TEM contributed to the discovery of many types of viruses and served as a diagnostic tool for identifying viruses directly in biological samples, either in suspension or in sections of tissues or mammalian cells grown in vitro in contact with clinical samples. The diagnosis of viral infections improved considerably during the 1990s, with the advent of highly sensitive techniques, such as enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and PCR, rendering TEM obsolete for this purpose. However, the last 20 years have demonstrated the utility of this technique in particular situations, due to its “catch‐all” nature, making diagnosis possible through visualization of the virus, without the need of prior assumptions about the infectious agent sought. Thus, in several major outbreaks in which molecular techniques failed to identify the infectious agent, TEM provided the answer. TEM is also still occasionally used in routine diagnosis to characterize infections not diagnosed by molecular assays. It is also used to check the microbiological safety of biological products. Many biopharmaceuticals are produced in animal cells that might contain little‐known, difficult‐to‐detect viruses. In this context, the “catch‐all” properties of TEM make it possible to document the presence of viruses or virus‐like particles in these products.

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“…In the late 1970s, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) became the second technique to achieve atomic resolution. [6] This method relies on the scattering of high energy electrons as they pass through a thin sample. TEM can reveal individual heavy atoms but organic molecules do not normally show up because they produce too little scattering and are damaged by electrons.…”

Section: Building Photogenic Moleculesðmolecules Made For Direct Indimentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Photogenic Molecules—Molecules Made for Direct Individual Observation

Anderson

2000

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.

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The Development of the Electron Microscope and of Electron Microscopy (Nobel Lecture)

Cited by 64 publications

References 14 publications

Uncharacterized Bacterial Structures Revealed by Electron Cryotomography

Uncharacterized Bacterial Structures Revealed by Electron Cryotomography

Virus detection by transmission electron microscopy: Still useful for diagnosis and a plus for biosafety

Building Photogenic Molecules—Molecules Made for Direct Individual Observation

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