Square condenser apertures for square cameras in low-dose transmission electron microscopy

Hamish G Brown; Dan Smith; Benjamin C Wardle; Eric Hanssen

doi:10.1038/s41592-024-02206-9

Square condenser apertures for square cameras in low-dose transmission electron microscopy

Nat Methods. 2024 Apr;21(4):566-568. doi: 10.1038/s41592-024-02206-9. Epub 2024 Mar 8.

Authors

Hamish G Brown¹, Dan Smith², Benjamin C Wardle³, Eric Hanssen^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Ian Holmes Imaging Centre and ARC Industrial Training Centre for Cryo Electron Microscopy of Membrane Proteins, The Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia. [email protected].
² Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, Australian National Fabrication Facility, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
³ Thermo Fisher Scientific Australia, Scoresby, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ Ian Holmes Imaging Centre and ARC Industrial Training Centre for Cryo Electron Microscopy of Membrane Proteins, The Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

PMID: 38459386
DOI: 10.1038/s41592-024-02206-9

Abstract

In transmission electron microscopy (TEM), cameras are square or rectangular but beams are round so the circular lobes irradiate adjacent areas, precluding further neighboring acquisition for beam-sensitive samples. We present condenser aperture plates with square and rectangular shapes that improve the efficiency of area usage by 70% and enhance montage imaging for beam-sensitive specimens. We demonstrate the compatibility of these condenser aperture plates with high-resolution cryogenic TEM by reconstructing a 1.8-Å map of equine apo-ferritin.

MeSH terms

Animals
Horses
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission*