Cargando…

Carbon replicas reveal double stranded structure of tight junctions in phase-contrast electron microscopy

Replica-based freeze-fracture and freeze-etching electron microscopy methods provide surface topography information, particularly suited to studying membrane protein complexes in their native context. The fidelity and resolution of metal replicas is limited by the inherent property of metal atoms to...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Krystofiak, Evan S., Heymann, J. Bernard, Kachar, Bechara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6414538/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30886907
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0319-4
Descripción
Sumario:Replica-based freeze-fracture and freeze-etching electron microscopy methods provide surface topography information, particularly suited to studying membrane protein complexes in their native context. The fidelity and resolution of metal replicas is limited by the inherent property of metal atoms to crystallize. To overcome the limitations of metal replicas, we combined amorphous carbon replicas with phase-contrast electron microscopy. Using this approach, tight junction intramembrane fibrils were shown to have a double stranded morphology.