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Updated: Apr 20, 2026

Visualization of DNA Compaction in Cyanobacteria by High-voltage Cryo-electron Tomography
Published on: July 17, 2018
Identifying the assembly pathway of cyanophage inside the marine bacterium using electron cryo-tomography
Wei Dai1, Michael F Schmid1, Jonathan A King2
1National Center for Macromolecular Imaging, Verna and Marrs Mclean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
Abstract:
Advances in electron cryo-tomography open up a new avenue to visualize the 3-D internal structure of a single bacterium before and after its infection by bacteriophages in its native environment, without using chemical fixatives, fluorescent dyes or negative stains. Such direct observation reveals the presence of assembly intermediates of the bacteriophage and thus allows us to map out the maturation pathway of the bacteriophage inside its host.
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