Cryo-ET bridges the gap between cell biology and structural biophysics<xref rid="cpb_27_6_066803fn1" ref-type="fn">*</xref> <fn id="cpb_27_6_066803fn1"> <label>*</label> <p>Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0504800) and the Pujiang Talent Program (Grant No. 17PJ1406700).</p> </fn>

Cryo-ET bridges the gap between cell biology and structural biophysics* *

Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0504800) and the Pujiang Talent Program (Grant No. 17PJ1406700).

Cheng Xiao-Fang^{1, 2}, Wang Rui^{1, 2, †}, Shen Qing-Tao^{1, 2, 3, ‡}

(color online) Basic pipelines of cryo-ET. Basic pipeline for cryo-ET. (a) The sample stages are usually tilted from −60° to +60°, (b) allowing projection images at varying angles to be recorded. (c) These 2D projection images are then reconstructed computationally to generate a 3D volumetric structure known as a “tomogram”. Structural features of interest in the tomogram are segmented either manually or automatically by a specialized visualization software, to create 3D annotations, which can then be used for both visualization and statistical analysis. (d) Repetitive structures in a tomogram can be extracted as “sub-tomograms” for furthering averaging. Modified with permission from Galaz-Montoya et al., 2017.