Electron microscope autoradiography of isolated molecules

Abstract

The LIGOP method of electron microscope autoradiography which consists in a combination of coating Ilford emulsion with the loop technique and developing with gold latensification and phenidon has proved to provide small, compact developed silver grains with high efficiency.This has made it possible to use this technique with very small materials such as isolated molecules of molecular complexes.The method was assayed first with 3H-Thymidine labelled T7 phages DNA molecule with 630,000 cpm/μg specific activity (fig. 1). The molecules were spread using the adsorption technique constrasted by rotatory shadowing with platinum and then subjected to autoradiography. The Labelling was sufficient to obtain quantitative data in which the spread molecules were considered as a material comparable to a “hot line”. The efficiency (45%) and the HD value (1600 Å) were calculated.The method was also applied to transcription units of pleurodeles oocytes nucleoli (fig. 2) labelled in vitro with 3H-Uridine.