Total Sample Conditioning and Preparation of Nanoliter Volumes for Electron Microscopy.
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_1AD2C23D537B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Total Sample Conditioning and Preparation of Nanoliter Volumes for Electron Microscopy.
Journal
ACS nano
ISSN
1936-086X (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1936-0851
Publication state
Published
Issued date
24/05/2016
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
10
Number
5
Pages
4981-4988
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Electron microscopy (EM) entered a new era with the emergence of direct electron detectors and new nanocrystal electron diffraction methods. However, sample preparation techniques have not progressed and still suffer from extensive blotting steps leading to a massive loss of sample. Here, we present a simple but versatile method for the almost lossless sample conditioning and preparation of nanoliter volumes of biological samples for EM, keeping the sample under close to physiological condition. A microcapillary is used to aspirate 3-5 nL of sample. The microcapillary tip is immersed into a reservoir of negative stain or trehalose, where the sample becomes conditioned by diffusive exchange of salt and heavy metal ions or sugar molecules, respectively, before it is deposited as a small spot onto an EM grid. We demonstrate the use of the method to prepare protein particles for imaging by transmission EM and nanocrystals for analysis by electron diffraction. Furthermore, the minute sample volume required for this method enables alternative strategies for biological experiments, such as the analysis of the content of a single cell by visual proteomics, fully exploiting the single molecule detection limit of EM.
Keywords
electron diffraction, electron microscopy, nanocrystal, negative staining, single-cell analysis, visual proteomics
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
09/06/2023 15:02
Last modification date
20/07/2023 5:57