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Updated: May 17, 2026

Assessing Two-dimensional Crystallization Trials of Small Membrane Proteins for Structural Biology Studies by Electron Crystallography
Published on: October 29, 2010
Screening for two-dimensional crystals by transmission electron microscopy of negatively stained samples
Tina M Dreaden1, Maureen Metcalfe, Laura Y Kim
1School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Abstract:
Structural studies of soluble and membrane proteins by electron crystallography include several critical steps. While the two-dimensional (2D) crystallization arguably may be described as the major bottleneck of electron crystallography, the screening by transmission electron microscopy (EM) to identify 2D crystals requires great care as well as practice. Both sample preparation and EM are skills that are relatively easily acquired, compared to the identification of the first ordered arrays. Added to this, membranes may have a variety of morphologies and sizes. Here we describe all steps involved in the screening for 2D crystals as well as the evaluation of samples.
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