Abstract
I describe herein a method in which pretreatment with low concentrations of uranyl acetate is used to increase the structural rigidity of protein-nucleic acid complexes, thereby substantially enhancing the information content of images obtained by high-resolution shadow-casting with tungsten, The visualization of three-dimensional objects by heavy-metal shadowcasting is along-established technique in electron microscopy (1), and it has long been realized that the highest resolution could be achieved by using carbon-metal mixtures or high-melting-point metals for the evaporation (2,3). Double-stranded DNAs, 2 nm in diameter, are readily visualized by high-resolution shadowing with tungsten (4).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Williams, R. C and Wycoff, R. W. G. (1946) Applications of metallic shadow-casting to microscopy. J. Appl. Phys. 17, 23.
Bradley, D. E.(1959) High-resolution shadow-casting technique for the electron microscope using the simultaneous evaporation of Pt and carbon. Br. J. Appl. Phys. 10, 198.
Abermann, R., Salpeter, M. M., and Bachmann, L.(1972) High resolution shadowing, in Principles and Techniques of Electron Microscopy, vol. 2 (Hayat, M. A., ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, pp. 197–217.
Griffith, J., Huberman, J. A., and Kornberg, A. (1971) Electron microscopy of DNA polymerase bound to DNA. J. Mol. Biol. 55, 209–214.
Alberts, B., Frey, L., and Delius, H. (1972) Isolation and characterization of gene 5 protein of filamentous bacterial viruses. J. Mol. Biol. 68, 139–152.
Pratt, D., Laws, P., and Griffith, J. (1974) Complex of bacteriophage Ml3 single stranded DNA and gene 5 protein. J. Mol. Biol. 82 425–439.
Gray, C. W., Kneale, G. G., Leonard, K. R., Siegrist, H., and Marvin, D. A. (1982) A nucleoprotem complex in bacteria infected with Pfl filamentous virus: identification and electron microscopic analysis. Virology 116, 40–52.
Gray, C. W. (1989) Three-dimensional structure of complexes of single-stranded DNA-binding protems with DNA. IKe and fd gene 5 proteins form left-handed helices with single-stranded DNA. J. Mol. Biol. 208, 57–64.
Haschemeyer, R. H. and Myers, R. J.(1972) Negative staining, in Principles and Techniques of Electron Microscopy, vol 2 Hayat, M A., ed.), Van Nostrand Remhold, New York, pp. 101–147.
Akey, C. W. and Edelstein, S. J. (1983) Equivalence of the projected structure of thin catalase crystals preserved for electron microscopy by negative stain, glucose, or embedding in the presence of tannic acid. J Mol. Biol. 163, 575–612.
Vollenwerder, J J., Sogo, J. M., and Keller, Th. (1975) A routine method for protein-free spreading of double-and single-stranded nucleic acid molecules. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 72, 83–87
Williams, R. C. (1977) Use of polylysine for adsorption of nucleic actds and enzymes to electron microscope specimen films. Proc Natl Acad. Sci. USA 74, 2311–2315
Valentine, R C, Shapiro, B M, and Stadtman, E. R (1968) Regulation of glutamine synthetase, XII. Electron microscopy of the enzyme from Escherichia coli. Biochemistry 7, 2143–21
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Humana Press Inc, Totowa, NJ
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Gray, C.W. (1994). Electron Microscopy of Protein-Nucleic Acid Complexes. In: Jones, C., Mulloy, B., Thomas, A.H. (eds) Microscopy, Optical Spectroscopy, and Macroscopic Techniques. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 22. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-232-9:1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-232-9:1
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-232-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-509-9
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols