Specimen flatness of glucose-embedded biological materials for electron crystallography is affected significantly by the choice of carbon evaporation stock

Abstract

Imperfect specimen flatness can be a significant limitation in the application of electron crystallography to high-resolution structure analysis of biological macromolecules. We now report that the choice of solid carbon stock that is used to make evaporated carbon films can have a very great effect on the preparation of flat specimens of glucose-embedded purple membrane. The degree of purity of the carbon does not seem to be the controlling factor, and other likely factors such as the type of mica used as a substrate, the evaporation apparatus used (and its limiting vacuum), and the use of a continuous versus an interrupted evaporation protocol do not have a discernible influence. The physical or chemical basis for the observed differences in specimen flatness is still unknown; however, the important conclusion that we can communicate at this point is that the choice of evaporating material does have a major effect on the flatness of purple membrane, the specimen used here. The implication is that different sources of carbon stock should be tried whenever difficulty is encountered in the preparation of suitably flat specimens of biological macromolecules.