Structure of the insect troponin complex

Abstract

Isolated troponin-tropomyosin complex from Lethocerus indicus asynchronous flight muscle forms paracrystals on a positively charged lipid monolayer. Single particle analysis was carried out on individual complexes selected from electron micrographs of negatively stained paracrystals. By a combination of correlation and classification techniques, different average projections of the object were obtained. An initial three-dimensional model was calculated by determining the Euler angles for the different views using a common line approach. This starting model was then used as a reference for the further three-dimensional refinement of the model using the original data set. The refined model of the troponin complex has a diameter of approximately 90 Å and a volume corresponding with a molecular mass of about 120 kDa for the globular domain. The resolution of the reconstruction was determined to be 32 Å using the differential phase residual method and 26 Å using the Fourier shell correlation criterion.