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Related Concept Videos

Cryo-electron Microscopy01:28

Cryo-electron Microscopy

Conventional electron microscopy (EM) involves dehydration, fixation, and staining of biological samples, which distorts the native state of biological molecules and results in several artifacts. Also, the high-energy electron beam damages the sample and makes it difficult to obtain high-resolution images. These issues can be addressed using cryo-EM, which uses frozen samples and gentler electron beams. The technique was developed by Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson, for...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Microbiota of Attine Ants' Gardens: Visualizing a Microbial Landscape by Scanning Electron Microscopy
07:00

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Published on: October 4, 2024

Imaging hydrated microbial extracellular polymers: comparative analysis by electron microscopy.

Alice C Dohnalkova1, Matthew J Marshall, Bruce W Arey

  • 1Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, Richland, Washington 99354, USA. Alice.dohnalkova@pnl.gov

Applied and Environmental Microbiology
|December 21, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Traditional electron microscopy sample preparation alters microbe extracellular polymers. Cryogenic electron microscopy preserves native structures, offering more accurate insights into microbe-mineral and -metal interactions.

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Published on: January 25, 2012

Area of Science:

  • Geomicrobiology
  • Microscopy techniques
  • Biogeochemistry

Background:

  • Microbe-mineral and -metal interactions are crucial at the biosphere-geosphere interface.
  • Investigating these microscale associations requires high-resolution imaging.
  • Conventional electron microscopy (EM) sample preparation can distort native microbial morphology, particularly extracellular polymers.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare conventional EM with cryogenic EM (cryo-EM) for analyzing microbe-mineral and -metal interactions.
  • To assess the impact of traditional dehydration-based sample preparation on microbial extracellular polymers.
  • To evaluate cryo-EM's ability to image samples in a near-native hydrated state.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis using conventional room-temperature EM.
  • Application of various cryogenic electron microscopy methods for hydrated state imaging.
  • In situ observation of sample transformations during preparation.

Main Results:

  • Traditional dehydration-based sample preparation caused irreversible collapse of hydrated bacterial extracellular polymers into filamentous structures.
  • This dehydration-induced collapse alters the native morphology and spatial relationships of polymers.
  • Cryogenic electron microscopy provided imaging in a close-to-natural hydrated state.

Conclusions:

  • Dehydration artifacts in conventional EM can lead to inaccurate interpretations of microbe-environment interactions.
  • Cryo-EM is essential for preserving the native state of microbial extracellular polymers.
  • Accurate imaging is critical for understanding the role of microbial extracellular polymers in geomicrobial processes.