Abstract
Elucidation of the structure of biological macromolecules and larger assemblies has been essential to understanding the roles they play in living processes. Methods for three-dimensional structure determination of biological assemblies from images recorded in the electron microscope were therefore a key development. In his paper published in Philosophical Transactions B in 1971, Crowther described new computational procedures applied to the first three-dimensional reconstruction of an icosahedral virus from images of virus particles preserved in negative stain. The method for determining the relative orientation of randomly oriented particles and combining their images for reconstruction exploited the high symmetry of the virus particle. Computational methods for image analysis have since been extended to include biological assemblies without symmetry. Further experimental advances, combined with image analysis, have led to the method of cryomicroscopy, which is now used by structural biologists to study the structure and dynamics of biological machines and assemblies in atomic detail. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
Highlights
Members of the Royal Society, notably Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, invented new designs for the light microscope and applied them to imaging a previously unseen world of tiny creatures
In his paper published in Philosophical Transactions B in 1971, Crowther described new computational procedures applied to the first three-dimensional reconstruction of an icosahedral virus from images of virus particles preserved in negative stain
Crowther’s ‘Procedures for three-dimensional reconstruction of spherical viruses by Fourier synthesis from electron micrographs’ [1] described the first objective computational approach to determine the three-dimensional structure of a spherical virus particle from images
Summary
Members of the Royal Society, notably Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, invented new designs for the light microscope and applied them to imaging a previously unseen world of tiny creatures. Crowther’s ‘Procedures for three-dimensional reconstruction of spherical viruses by Fourier synthesis from electron micrographs’ [1] described the first objective computational approach to determine the three-dimensional structure of a spherical virus particle from images. The paper was presented at a symposium on ‘New developments in electron microscopy’ at the Royal Society on 13 March 1970 organized by Hugh Huxley and Aaron Klug. These new developments were reported in three areas: (i) instrumentation, (ii) sample preparation, and (iii) image analysis. Dramatic progress in the last couple of years has extended its application to atomic resolution studies of smaller asymmetric proteins and nucleic acid assemblies, providing biology with one of its most powerful tools for imaging molecular structure. It is an instructive moment to consider the origins of single particle reconstruction as well as both the incremental steps and leaps that have brought electron microscopists and structural biologists to the present moment of excitement and optimism
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