Abstract
Recent technological advances, such as the introduction of the direct electron detector, have transformed the field of cryo-EM and the landscape of molecular and cellular structural biology. This study analyses these trends from the vantage point of the Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB), the public archive for three-dimensional EM reconstructions. Over 1000 entries were released in 2016, representing almost a quarter of the total number of entries (4431). Structures at better than 6 Å resolution now represent one of the fastest-growing categories, while the share of annually released tomography-related structures is approaching 20%. The use of direct electron detectors is growing very rapidly: they were used for 70% of the structures released in 2016, in contrast to none before 2011. Microscopes from FEI have an overwhelming lead in terms of usage, and the use of the RELION software package continues to grow rapidly after having attained a leading position in the field. China is rapidly emerging as a major player in the field, supplementing the US, Germany and the UK as the big four. Similarly, Tsinghua University ranks only second to the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology in terms of involvement in publications associated with cryo-EM structures at better than 4 Å resolution. Overall, the numbers point to a rapid democratization of the field, with more countries and institutes becoming involved.
Highlights
Recent technological advances such as the introduction of the direct electron detector have transformed the field of cryo-EM and the landscape of molecular and cellular structural biology (Kuhlbrandt, 2014; Bai et al, 2015; Eisenstein, 2016)
The number of publications associated with new Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB) entries increased by 25% in 2016 to over 300 (Fig. 2a)
The trends in the EMDB underscore the fast-paced changes currently taking place in the cryo-EM field driven by gamechanging technologies such as the direct electron detector
Summary
Recent technological advances such as the introduction of the direct electron detector have transformed the field of cryo-EM and the landscape of molecular and cellular structural biology (Kuhlbrandt, 2014; Bai et al, 2015; Eisenstein, 2016). There is a greater emphasis on trying to understand the cellular context of macromolecules by placing sub-tomogram averages into tomographic reconstructions and by exploiting correlative imaging techniques (Davies et al, 2011; Mattei et al, 2016). The Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB; http:// emdb-empiar.org) was established in 2002 (Tagari et al, 2002) at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL–EBI) and is the single global public repository for three-dimensional reconstructions derived from EM data (Lawson et al, 2016; Patwardhan & Lawson, 2016). The EMDB contains structures determined by single-particle averaging, electron crystallography and electron tomography (ET). The EMDB is a unique international resource and enjoys overwhelming support from the EM community.
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