Work

On the damage done to the structure of the Thermoplasma acidophilum proteasome by electron radiation

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: It has long been known that proteins are damaged when they are exposed to the electron beam in an electron microscope. Here we show that exposure to electrons under cryo-EM conditions leads to a small change in the quaternary structure of the Thermoplasma acidophilum proteasome, and that backbones atoms belonging to the α-helices in this molecule appear to be particular prone to chemical damage. A chemical mechanism is proposed for this damage. Both this local chemical effect and the more global quaternary structure effect appear to heterogenize samples leading to a radiation dose-dependent degradation of the resolution of the EM maps obtained from this molecule.

Source: Protein Science

DOI: 10.1002/pro.3511

Authors: Jimin Wang, Zheng Liu, Robert H. Crabtree, Joachim Frank, Peter B. Moore

Institutions: Yale University, NYU Langone Health, Columbia University

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 Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: Structural Analysis of Macromolecular Assemblies, Time-resolved Cryo-EM of Short-lived States in Eukaryotic Translation, Structural bases of the functions of RNA-protein machines