High-Resolution single particle analysis using a scintillator camera XF416 on CRYOARM300II at 300 kV

The advent of direct electron detectors (DEDs) has driven a major breakthrough in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), particularly in single-particle analysis (SPA), establishing DEDs as essential tools for achieving near-atomic resolution. In this study, we re-evaluated the performance of the TVIPS TemCam-XF416, an indirect scintillator-coupled CMOS camera (scintillator camera). Using a JEOL CRYOARM 300II, we performed SPA on two well-established benchmark specimens, β-galactosidase and apoferritin, at a 300 kV acceleration voltage. The resulting reconstructions reached resolutions of 2.6 Å and 2.1 Å, respectively. Notably, the apoferritin map clearly resolves the central holes of aromatic side chains-a level of detail previously considered exclusive to DEDs. These results were achieved by implementing the latest standard reconstruction workflows, including motion correction and contrast transfer function refinement, underscoring the critical role of computational methods in attaining high-resolution structures. While scintillator cameras inherently exhibit a lower signal-to-noise ratio than DEDs, our findings with XF416 demonstrate that, with appropriate data collection and processing, such cameras can deliver near-atomic resolution structures. This work establishes a crucial technical benchmark for the scintillator camera evaluated in this study on a high-end 300 kV cryo-EM platform, demonstrating its capability to achieve resolutions suitable for many structural biology applications and providing an updated perspective on its performance capabilities.