|
1
|
Aiyer S, Baldwin PR, Tan SM, Shan Z, Oh J, Mehrani A, Bowman ME, Louie G, Passos DO, Đorđević-Marquardt S, Mietzsch M, Hull JA, Hoshika S, Barad BA, Grotjahn DA, McKenna R, Agbandje-McKenna M, Benner SA, Noel JAP, Wang D, Tan YZ, Lyumkis D. Overcoming resolution attenuation during tilted cryo-EM data collection. Nat Commun 2024; 15:389. [PMID: 38195598 PMCID: PMC10776679 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44555-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Structural biology efforts using cryogenic electron microscopy are frequently stifled by specimens adopting "preferred orientations" on grids, leading to anisotropic map resolution and impeding structure determination. Tilting the specimen stage during data collection is a generalizable solution but has historically led to substantial resolution attenuation. Here, we develop updated data collection and image processing workflows and demonstrate, using multiple specimens, that resolution attenuation is negligible or significantly reduced across tilt angles. Reconstructions with and without the stage tilted as high as 60° are virtually indistinguishable. These strategies allowed the reconstruction to 3 Å resolution of a bacterial RNA polymerase with preferred orientation, containing an unnatural nucleotide for studying novel base pair recognition. Furthermore, we present a quantitative framework that allows cryo-EM practitioners to define an optimal tilt angle during data acquisition. These results reinforce the utility of employing stage tilt for data collection and provide quantitative metrics to obtain isotropic maps.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sriram Aiyer
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Philip R Baldwin
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Shi Min Tan
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 16 Science Drive 4, Singapore, 117558, Singapore
| | - Zelin Shan
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Juntaek Oh
- Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 02247, Republic of Korea
| | - Atousa Mehrani
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Marianne E Bowman
- Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and Proteomics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Gordon Louie
- Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and Proteomics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Dario Oliveira Passos
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | | | - Mario Mietzsch
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Joshua A Hull
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Shuichi Hoshika
- Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, 13709 Progress Blvd Box 7, Alachua, FL, 32615, USA
| | - Benjamin A Barad
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Danielle A Grotjahn
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Robert McKenna
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Mavis Agbandje-McKenna
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Steven A Benner
- Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, 13709 Progress Blvd Box 7, Alachua, FL, 32615, USA
| | - Joseph A P Noel
- Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and Proteomics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Dong Wang
- Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Yong Zi Tan
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 16 Science Drive 4, Singapore, 117558, Singapore.
- Disease Intervention Technology Laboratory (DITL), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 8A Biomedical Grove, Singapore, 138648, Singapore.
- Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 61 Biopolis Drive, Proteos, Singapore, 138673, Republic of Singapore.
| | - Dmitry Lyumkis
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA.
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA.
- Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Section of Molecular Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
|
2
|
Aiyer S, Baldwin PR, Tan SM, Shan Z, Oh J, Mehrani A, Bowman ME, Louie G, Passos DO, Đorđević-Marquardt S, Mietzsch M, Hull JA, Hoshika S, Barad BA, Grotjahn DA, McKenna R, Agbandje-McKenna M, Benner SA, Noel JAP, Wang D, Tan YZ, Lyumkis D. Overcoming Resolution Attenuation During Tilted Cryo-EM Data Collection. bioRxiv 2023:2023.07.14.548955. [PMID: 37503021 PMCID: PMC10369999 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.14.548955] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Structural biology efforts using cryogenic electron microscopy are frequently stifled by specimens adopting "preferred orientations" on grids, leading to anisotropic map resolution and impeding structure determination. Tilting the specimen stage during data collection is a generalizable solution but has historically led to substantial resolution attenuation. Here, we develop updated data collection and image processing workflows and demonstrate, using multiple specimens, that resolution attenuation is negligible or significantly reduced across tilt angles. Reconstructions with and without the stage tilted as high as 60° are virtually indistinguishable. These strategies allowed the reconstruction to 3 Å resolution of a bacterial RNA polymerase with preferred orientation. Furthermore, we present a quantitative framework that allows cryo-EM practitioners to define an optimal tilt angle for dataset acquisition. These data reinforce the utility of employing stage tilt for data collection and provide quantitative metrics to obtain isotropic maps.
Collapse
|