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Complementary Use of Electron Cryomicroscopy and X-Ray Crystallography: Structural Studies of Actin and Actomyosin Filaments

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Book cover Integrative Structural Biology with Hybrid Methods

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1105))

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Abstract

Visualization of macromolecular structures is essential for understanding the mechanisms of biological functions because they are all determined by the structure and dynamics of macromolecular complexes. Electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM) and image analysis has become a powerful tool for structural studies because of recent technical developments in microscope optics, cryostage control, image detection and the methods of sample preparation. In particular, the recent development of CMOS-based direct electron detectors with high sensitivity, high resolution and high frame rate has revolutionized the field of structural biology by making near-atomic resolution structural analysis possible from small amounts of solution samples. However, for some biological systems, it is still difficult to reach high resolution due to somewhat flexible nature of the structure, and a complementary use of cryoEM with X-ray crystallography is essential and useful to gain mechanistic understanding of the biological functions and mechanisms. We will describe our strategy for the structural analyses of actin filament and actomyosin rigor complex and the biological insights we gained from these structures.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 25711010 to T.F and 25000013 to K.N.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Takashi Fujii & Keiichi Namba

  2. Quantitative Biology Center, Riken, Osaka, Japan

    Takashi Fujii & Keiichi Namba

Authors
  1. Takashi Fujii
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  2. Keiichi Namba
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Correspondence to Keiichi Namba .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Haruki Nakamura

  2. European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridgeshire, UK

    Gerard Kleywegt

  3. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Stephen K. Burley

  4. Biochemistry Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    John L. Markley

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Fujii, T., Namba, K. (2018). Complementary Use of Electron Cryomicroscopy and X-Ray Crystallography: Structural Studies of Actin and Actomyosin Filaments. In: Nakamura, H., Kleywegt, G., Burley, S., Markley, J. (eds) Integrative Structural Biology with Hybrid Methods. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1105. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2200-6_4

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