Work

An Improved Cryogen for Plunge Freezing

Year: 2008

Type: article

Abstract: The use of an alkane mixture that remains liquid at 77 K to freeze specimens has advantages over the use of a pure alkane that is solid at 77 K. It was found that a mixture of methane and ethane did not give a cooling rate adequate to produce vitreous ice, but a mixture of propane and ethane did result in vitreous ice. Furthermore, the latter mixture produced less damage to specimens mounted on a very thin, fragile holey carbon substrate.

Source: Microscopy and Microanalysis

DOI: 10.1017/s1431927608080781

Authors: William F. Tivol, Ariane Briegel, Grant J. Jensen

Institution: California Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications

Subfield: Structural Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Awards: Center for the Structural Biology of Cellular Host Elements in Egress, Trafficking, and Assembly of HIV (CHEETAH Center), Structure and function of the prokaryotic cytoskeleton by electron cryotomography