1
|
Dutta M, Acharya P. Cryo-electron microscopy in the study of virus entry and infection. Front Mol Biosci 2024; 11:1429180. [PMID: 39114367 PMCID: PMC11303226 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1429180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 08/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Viruses have been responsible for many epidemics and pandemics that have impacted human life globally. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted both our vulnerability to viral outbreaks, as well as the mobilization of the scientific community to come together to combat the unprecedented threat to humanity. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) played a central role in our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic and continues to inform about this evolving pathogen. Cryo-EM with its two popular imaging modalities, single particle analysis (SPA) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), has contributed immensely to understanding the structure of viruses and interactions that define their life cycles and pathogenicity. Here, we review how cryo-EM has informed our understanding of three distinct viruses, of which two - HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 infect humans, and the third, bacteriophages, infect bacteria. For HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 our focus is on the surface glycoproteins that are responsible for mediating host receptor binding, and host and cell membrane fusion, while for bacteriophages, we review their structure, capsid maturation, attachment to the bacterial cell surface and infection initiation mechanism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Moumita Dutta
- Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Priyamvada Acharya
- Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Durham, NC, United States
- Department of Surgery, Durham, NC, United States
- Department of Biochemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Yadav S, Vinothkumar KR. Factors affecting macromolecule orientations in thin films formed in cryo-EM. Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol 2024; 80:535-550. [PMID: 38935342 PMCID: PMC11220838 DOI: 10.1107/s2059798324005229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The formation of a vitrified thin film embedded with randomly oriented macromolecules is an essential prerequisite for cryogenic sample electron microscopy. Most commonly, this is achieved using the plunge-freeze method first described nearly 40 years ago. Although this is a robust method, the behaviour of different macromolecules shows great variation upon freezing and often needs to be optimized to obtain an isotropic, high-resolution reconstruction. For a macromolecule in such a film, the probability of encountering the air-water interface in the time between blotting and freezing and adopting preferred orientations is very high. 3D reconstruction using preferentially oriented particles often leads to anisotropic and uninterpretable maps. Currently, there are no general solutions to this prevalent issue, but several approaches largely focusing on sample preparation with the use of additives and novel grid modifications have been attempted. In this study, the effect of physical and chemical factors on the orientations of macromolecules was investigated through an analysis of selected well studied macromolecules, and important parameters that determine the behaviour of proteins on cryo-EM grids were revealed. These insights highlight the nature of the interactions that cause preferred orientations and can be utilized to systematically address orientation bias for any given macromolecule and to provide a framework to design small-molecule additives to enhance sample stability and behaviour.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Swati Yadav
- National Centre for Biological SciencesTata Institute of Fundamental ResearchGKVK Post, Bellary RoadBengaluru560 065India
| | - Kutti R. Vinothkumar
- National Centre for Biological SciencesTata Institute of Fundamental ResearchGKVK Post, Bellary RoadBengaluru560 065India
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Plana-Ruiz S, Gómez-Pérez A, Budayova-Spano M, Foley DL, Portillo-Serra J, Rauch E, Grivas E, Housset D, Das PP, Taheri ML, Nicolopoulos S, Ling WL. High-Resolution Electron Diffraction of Hydrated Protein Crystals at Room Temperature. ACS NANO 2023; 17:24802-24813. [PMID: 37890869 PMCID: PMC10753879 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c05378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2023] [Revised: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023]
Abstract
Structural characterization is crucial to understanding protein function. Compared with X-ray diffraction methods, electron crystallography can be performed on nanometer-sized crystals and can provide additional information from the resulting Coulomb potential map. Whereas electron crystallography has successfully resolved three-dimensional structures of vitrified protein crystals, its widespread use as a structural biology tool has been limited. One main reason is the fragility of such crystals. Protein crystals can be easily damaged by mechanical stress, change in temperature, or buffer conditions as well as by electron irradiation. This work demonstrates a methodology to preserve these nanocrystals in their natural environment at room temperature for electron diffraction experiments as an alternative to existing cryogenic techniques. Lysozyme crystals in their crystallization solution are hermetically sealed via graphene-coated grids, and their radiation damage is minimized by employing a low-dose data collection strategy in combination with a hybrid-pixel direct electron detector. Diffraction patterns with reflections of up to 3 Å are obtained and successfully indexed using a template-matching algorithm. These results demonstrate the feasibility of in situ protein electron diffraction. The method described will also be applicable to structural studies of hydrated nanocrystals important in many research and technological developments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sergi Plana-Ruiz
- NanoMegas
SRPL, Rue Emile Claus
49, Brussels 1050, Belgium
- Servei
de Recursos Científics i Tècnics, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona 43007, Catalonia, Spain
| | | | | | - Daniel L. Foley
- Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
| | | | - Edgar Rauch
- SIMAP,
Grenoble INP, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
| | | | | | | | - Mitra L. Taheri
- Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States
| | | | - Wai Li Ling
- Université
Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, IBS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Malhotra S, Mulvaney T, Cragnolini T, Sidhu H, Joseph A, Beton J, Topf M. RIBFIND2: Identifying rigid bodies in protein and nucleic acid structures. Nucleic Acids Res 2023; 51:9567-9575. [PMID: 37670532 PMCID: PMC10570027 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Revised: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Molecular structures are often fitted into cryo-EM maps by flexible fitting. When this requires large conformational changes, identifying rigid bodies can help optimize the model-map fit. Tools for identifying rigid bodies in protein structures exist, however an equivalent for nucleic acid structures is lacking. With the increase in cryo-EM maps containing RNA and progress in RNA structure prediction, there is a need for such tools. We previously developed RIBFIND, a program for clustering protein secondary structures into rigid bodies. In RIBFIND2, this approach is extended to nucleic acid structures. RIBFIND2 can identify biologically relevant rigid bodies in important groups of complex RNA structures, capturing a wide range of dynamics, including large rigid-body movements. The usefulness of RIBFIND2-assigned rigid bodies in cryo-EM model refinement was demonstrated on three examples, with two conformations each: Group II Intron complexed IEP, Internal Ribosome Entry Site and the Processome, using cryo-EM maps at 2.7-5 Å resolution. A hierarchical refinement approach, performed on progressively smaller sets of RIBFIND2 rigid bodies, was clearly shown to have an advantage over classical all-atom refinement. RIBFIND2 is available via a web server with structure visualization and as a standalone tool.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sony Malhotra
- Science and Technology Facilities Council, Scientific Computing, Research Complex at Harwell, Didcot OX11 0FA, UK
| | - Thomas Mulvaney
- Leibniz Institute of Virology, Hamburg 20251, Germany
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology, Hamburg D-22607, Germany
- Universitätsklinikum Hamburg Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg 20246, Germany
| | - Tristan Cragnolini
- Leibniz Institute of Virology, Hamburg 20251, Germany
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Haneesh Sidhu
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Agnel P Joseph
- Science and Technology Facilities Council, Scientific Computing, Research Complex at Harwell, Didcot OX11 0FA, UK
| | - Joseph G Beton
- Leibniz Institute of Virology, Hamburg 20251, Germany
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology, Hamburg D-22607, Germany
| | - Maya Topf
- Leibniz Institute of Virology, Hamburg 20251, Germany
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology, Hamburg D-22607, Germany
- Universitätsklinikum Hamburg Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg 20246, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Beton JG, Cragnolini T, Kaleel M, Mulvaney T, Sweeney A, Topf M. Integrating model simulation tools and
cryo‐electron
microscopy. WIRES COMPUTATIONAL MOLECULAR SCIENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/wcms.1642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joseph George Beton
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) Leibniz‐Institut für Virologie (LIV) Hamburg Germany
| | - Tristan Cragnolini
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck and University College London London UK
| | - Manaz Kaleel
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) Leibniz‐Institut für Virologie (LIV) Hamburg Germany
| | - Thomas Mulvaney
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) Leibniz‐Institut für Virologie (LIV) Hamburg Germany
| | - Aaron Sweeney
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) Leibniz‐Institut für Virologie (LIV) Hamburg Germany
| | - Maya Topf
- Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) Leibniz‐Institut für Virologie (LIV) Hamburg Germany
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
McCafferty CL, Papoulas O, Jordan MA, Hoogerbrugge G, Nichols C, Pigino G, Taylor DW, Wallingford JB, Marcotte EM. Integrative modeling reveals the molecular architecture of the intraflagellar transport A (IFT-A) complex. eLife 2022; 11:e81977. [PMID: 36346217 PMCID: PMC9674347 DOI: 10.7554/elife.81977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Intraflagellar transport (IFT) is a conserved process of cargo transport in cilia that is essential for development and homeostasis in organisms ranging from algae to vertebrates. In humans, variants in genes encoding subunits of the cargo-adapting IFT-A and IFT-B protein complexes are a common cause of genetic diseases known as ciliopathies. While recent progress has been made in determining the atomic structure of IFT-B, little is known of the structural biology of IFT-A. Here, we combined chemical cross-linking mass spectrometry and cryo-electron tomography with AlphaFold2-based prediction of both protein structures and interaction interfaces to model the overall architecture of the monomeric six-subunit IFT-A complex, as well as its polymeric assembly within cilia. We define monomer-monomer contacts and membrane-associated regions available for association with transported cargo, and we also use this model to provide insights into the pleiotropic nature of human ciliopathy-associated genetic variants in genes encoding IFT-A subunits. Our work demonstrates the power of integration of experimental and computational strategies both for multi-protein structure determination and for understanding the etiology of human genetic disease.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caitlyn L McCafferty
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of TexasAustinUnited States
| | - Ophelia Papoulas
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of TexasAustinUnited States
| | - Mareike A Jordan
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and GeneticsDresdenGermany
| | - Gabriel Hoogerbrugge
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of TexasAustinUnited States
| | - Candice Nichols
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of TexasAustinUnited States
| | | | - David W Taylor
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of TexasAustinUnited States
| | - John B Wallingford
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of TexasAustinUnited States
| | - Edward M Marcotte
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of TexasAustinUnited States
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Sorzano COS, Vilas JL, Ramírez-Aportela E, Krieger J, Del Hoyo D, Herreros D, Fernandez-Giménez E, Marchán D, Macías JR, Sánchez I, Del Caño L, Fonseca-Reyna Y, Conesa P, García-Mena A, Burguet J, García Condado J, Méndez García J, Martínez M, Muñoz-Barrutia A, Marabini R, Vargas J, Carazo JM. Image processing tools for the validation of CryoEM maps. Faraday Discuss 2022; 240:210-227. [PMID: 35861059 DOI: 10.1039/d2fd00059h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
The number of maps deposited in public databases (Electron Microscopy Data Bank, EMDB) determined by cryo-electron microscopy has quickly grown in recent years. With this rapid growth, it is critical to guarantee their quality. So far, map validation has primarily focused on the agreement between maps and models. From the image processing perspective, the validation has been mostly restricted to using two half-maps and the measurement of their internal consistency. In this article, we suggest that map validation can be taken much further from the point of view of image processing if 2D classes, particles, angles, coordinates, defoci, and micrographs are also provided. We present a progressive validation scheme that qualifies a result validation status from 0 to 5 and offers three optional qualifiers (A, W, and O) that can be added. The simplest validation state is 0, while the most complete would be 5AWO. This scheme has been implemented in a website https://biocomp.cnb.csic.es/EMValidationService/ to which reconstructed maps and their ESI can be uploaded.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- C O S Sorzano
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - J L Vilas
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | | | - J Krieger
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - D Del Hoyo
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - D Herreros
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | | | - D Marchán
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - J R Macías
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - I Sánchez
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - L Del Caño
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Y Fonseca-Reyna
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - P Conesa
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - A García-Mena
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - J Burguet
- Depto. de Óptica, Univ. Complutense de Madrid, Pl. Ciencias, 1, 28040, Madrid, Spain
| | - J García Condado
- Biocruces Bizkaia Instituto Investigación Sanitaria, Cruces Plaza, 48903, Barakaldo, Bizkaia, Spain
| | | | - M Martínez
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| | - A Muñoz-Barrutia
- Univ. Carlos III de Madrid, Avda. de la Universidad 30, 28911, Leganés, Madrid, Spain
| | - R Marabini
- Escuela Politécnica Superior, Univ. Autónoma de Madrid, CSIC, C. Francisco Tomás y Valiente, 11, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - J Vargas
- Depto. de Óptica, Univ. Complutense de Madrid, Pl. Ciencias, 1, 28040, Madrid, Spain
| | - J M Carazo
- Natl. Center of Biotechnology, CSIC, c/Darwin, 3, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Joseph AP, Malhotra S, Burnley T, Winn MD. Overview and applications of map and model validation tools in the CCP-EM software suite. Faraday Discuss 2022; 240:196-209. [PMID: 35916020 PMCID: PMC9642004 DOI: 10.1039/d2fd00103a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has recently been established as a powerful technique for solving macromolecular structures. Although the best resolutions achievable are improving, a significant majority of data are still resolved at resolutions worse than 3 Å, where it is non-trivial to build or fit atomic models. The map reconstructions and atomic models derived from the maps are also prone to errors accumulated through the different stages of data processing. Here, we highlight the need to evaluate both model geometry and fit to data at different resolutions. Assessment of cryo-EM structures from SARS-CoV-2 highlights a bias towards optimising the model geometry to agree with the most common conformations, compared to the agreement with data. We present the CoVal web service which provides multiple validation metrics to reflect the quality of atomic models derived from cryo-EM data of structures from SARS-CoV-2. We demonstrate that further refinement can lead to improvement of the agreement with data without the loss of geometric quality. We also discuss the recent CCP-EM developments aimed at addressing some of the current shortcomings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Agnel Praveen Joseph
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities CouncilDidcot OX11 0FAUK
| | - Sony Malhotra
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities CouncilDidcot OX11 0FAUK
| | - Tom Burnley
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities CouncilDidcot OX11 0FAUK
| | - Martyn D. Winn
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities CouncilDidcot OX11 0FAUK
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Chung JM, Durie CL, Lee J. Artificial Intelligence in Cryo-Electron Microscopy. Life (Basel) 2022; 12:1267. [PMID: 36013446 PMCID: PMC9410485 DOI: 10.3390/life12081267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has become an unrivaled tool for determining the structure of macromolecular complexes. The biological function of macromolecular complexes is inextricably tied to the flexibility of these complexes. Single particle cryo-EM can reveal the conformational heterogeneity of a biochemically pure sample, leading to well-founded mechanistic hypotheses about the roles these complexes play in biology. However, the processing of increasingly large, complex datasets using traditional data processing strategies is exceedingly expensive in both user time and computational resources. Current innovations in data processing capitalize on artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency of data analysis and validation. Here, we review new tools that use AI to automate the data analysis steps of particle picking, 3D map reconstruction, and local resolution determination. We discuss how the application of AI moves the field forward, and what obstacles remain. We also introduce potential future applications of AI to use cryo-EM in understanding protein communities in cells.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jeong Min Chung
- Department of Biotechnology, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon-si 14662, Gyeonggi, Korea
| | - Clarissa L. Durie
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
| | - Jinseok Lee
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si 17104, Gyeonggi, Korea
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Chua EYD, Mendez JH, Rapp M, Ilca SL, Tan YZ, Maruthi K, Kuang H, Zimanyi CM, Cheng A, Eng ET, Noble AJ, Potter CS, Carragher B. Better, Faster, Cheaper: Recent Advances in Cryo-Electron Microscopy. Annu Rev Biochem 2022; 91:1-32. [PMID: 35320683 PMCID: PMC10393189 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-032620-110705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) continues its remarkable growth as a method for visualizing biological objects, which has been driven by advances across the entire pipeline. Developments in both single-particle analysis and in situ tomography have enabled more structures to be imaged and determined to better resolutions, at faster speeds, and with more scientists having improved access. This review highlights recent advances at each stageof the cryo-EM pipeline and provides examples of how these techniques have been used to investigate real-world problems, including antibody development against the SARS-CoV-2 spike during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eugene Y D Chua
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for CryoEM Access and Training, New York, NY, USA
| | - Joshua H Mendez
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for CryoEM Access and Training, New York, NY, USA
| | - Micah Rapp
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Serban L Ilca
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Yong Zi Tan
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore;
- Disease Intervention Technology Laboratory, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
| | - Kashyap Maruthi
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, New York, NY, USA
| | - Huihui Kuang
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, New York, NY, USA
| | - Christina M Zimanyi
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for CryoEM Access and Training, New York, NY, USA
| | - Anchi Cheng
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, New York, NY, USA
| | - Edward T Eng
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for CryoEM Access and Training, New York, NY, USA
| | - Alex J Noble
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for In-Situ Tomographic Ultramicroscopy, New York, NY, USA
- Simons Machine Learning Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Clinton S Potter
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for CryoEM Access and Training, New York, NY, USA
- National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for In-Situ Tomographic Ultramicroscopy, New York, NY, USA
- Simons Machine Learning Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Bridget Carragher
- New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for CryoEM Access and Training, New York, NY, USA
- National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, New York, NY, USA
- National Center for In-Situ Tomographic Ultramicroscopy, New York, NY, USA
- Simons Machine Learning Center, New York, NY, USA
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Peck JV, Fay JF, Strauss JD. High-speed high-resolution data collection on a 200 keV cryo-TEM. IUCRJ 2022; 9:243-252. [PMID: 35371504 PMCID: PMC8895008 DOI: 10.1107/s2052252522000069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Accepted: 01/03/2022] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Limitations to successful single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) projects include stable sample generation, production of quality cryo-EM grids with randomly oriented particles embedded in thin vitreous ice and access to microscope time. To address the limitation of microscope time, methodologies to more efficiently collect data on a 200 keV Talos Arctica cryo-transmission electron microscope at speeds as fast as 720 movies per hour (∼17 000 per day) were tested. In this study, key parameters were explored to increase data collection speed including: (1) using the beam-image shift method to acquire multiple images per stage position, (2) employing UltrAufoil TEM grids with R0.6/1 hole spacing, (3) collecting hardware-binned data and (4) adjusting the image shift delay factor in SerialEM. Here, eight EM maps of mouse apoferritin at 1.8-1.9 Å resolution were obtained in the analysis with data collection times for each dataset ranging from 56 min to 2 h. An EM map of mouse apoferritin at 1.78 Å was obtained from an overnight data collection at a speed of 500 movies per hour and subgroup analysis performed, with no significant variation observed in data quality by image shift distance and image shift delay. The findings and operating procedures detailed herein allow for rapid turnover of single-particle cryo-EM structure determination.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jared V. Peck
- Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 101 Mason Farm, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Jonathan F. Fay
- Biochemistry and Biophysics, 6107 Thurston Bowles Building, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Joshua D. Strauss
- Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 101 Mason Farm, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Zhang B, Liu D, Zhang Y, Shen HB, Zhang GJ. Accurate flexible refinement for atomic-level protein structure using cryo-EM density maps and deep learning. Brief Bioinform 2022; 23:6526721. [DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Revised: 12/26/2021] [Accepted: 01/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
With the rapid progress of deep learning in cryo-electron microscopy and protein structure prediction, improving the accuracy of the protein structure model by using a density map and predicted contact/distance map through deep learning has become an urgent need for robust methods. Thus, designing an effective protein structure optimization strategy based on the density map and predicted contact/distance map is critical to improving the accuracy of structure refinement. In this article, a protein structure optimization method based on the density map and predicted contact/distance map by deep-learning technology was proposed in accordance with the result of matching between the density map and the initial model. Physics- and knowledge-based energy functions, integrated with Cryo-EM density map data and deep-learning data, were used to optimize the protein structure in the simulation. The dynamic confidence score was introduced to the iterative process for choosing whether it is a density map or a contact/distance map to dominate the movement in the simulation to improve the accuracy of refinement. The protocol was tested on a large set of 224 non-homologous membrane proteins and generated 214 structural models with correct folds, where 4.5% of structural models were generated from structural models with incorrect folds. Compared with other state-of-the-art methods, the major advantage of the proposed methods lies in the skills for using density map and contact/distance map in the simulation, as well as the new energy function in the re-assembly simulations. Overall, the results demonstrated that this strategy is a valuable approach and ready to use for atomic-level structure refinement using cryo-EM density map and predicted contact/distance map.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Biao Zhang
- College of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology
| | - Dong Liu
- College of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan
| | - Hong-Bin Shen
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai, China
| | - Gui-Jun Zhang
- College of Information Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Joseph AP, Olek M, Malhotra S, Zhang P, Cowtan K, Burnley T, Winn MD. Atomic model validation using the CCP-EM software suite. Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol 2022; 78:152-161. [PMID: 35102881 PMCID: PMC8805302 DOI: 10.1107/s205979832101278x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, there has been a dramatic improvement in the quality and quantity of data derived using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). This is also associated with a large increase in the number of atomic models built. Although the best resolutions that are achievable are improving, often the local resolution is variable, and a significant majority of data are still resolved at resolutions worse than 3 Å. Model building and refinement is often challenging at these resolutions, and hence atomic model validation becomes even more crucial to identify less reliable regions of the model. Here, a graphical user interface for atomic model validation, implemented in the CCP-EM software suite, is presented. It is aimed to develop this into a platform where users can access multiple complementary validation metrics that work across a range of resolutions and obtain a summary of evaluations. Based on the validation estimates from atomic models associated with cryo-EM structures from SARS-CoV-2, it was observed that models typically favor adopting the most common conformations over fitting the observations when compared with the model agreement with data. At low resolutions, the stereochemical quality may be favored over data fit, but care should be taken to ensure that the model agrees with the data in terms of resolvable features. It is demonstrated that further re-refinement can lead to improvement of the agreement with data without the loss of geometric quality. This also highlights the need for improved resolution-dependent weight optimization in model refinement and an effective test for overfitting that would help to guide the refinement process.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Agnel Praveen Joseph
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, United Kingdom
| | - Mateusz Olek
- Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- Electron BioImaging Center, Diamond Light Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom
| | - Sony Malhotra
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, United Kingdom
| | - Peijun Zhang
- Electron BioImaging Center, Diamond Light Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom
| | - Kevin Cowtan
- Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Tom Burnley
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, United Kingdom
| | - Martyn D. Winn
- Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
OUP accepted manuscript. Microscopy (Oxf) 2022; 71:i60-i65. [DOI: 10.1093/jmicro/dfab059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Revised: 12/19/2021] [Accepted: 01/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
|
15
|
Kimanius D, Dong L, Sharov G, Nakane T, Scheres SHW. New tools for automated cryo-EM single-particle analysis in RELION-4.0. Biochem J 2021; 478:4169-4185. [PMID: 34783343 PMCID: PMC8786306 DOI: 10.1042/bcj20210708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 387] [Impact Index Per Article: 129.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
We describe new tools for the processing of electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) images in the fourth major release of the RELION software. In particular, we introduce VDAM, a variable-metric gradient descent algorithm with adaptive moments estimation, for image refinement; a convolutional neural network for unsupervised selection of 2D classes; and a flexible framework for the design and execution of multiple jobs in pre-defined workflows. In addition, we present a stand-alone utility called MDCatch that links the execution of jobs within this framework with metadata gathering during microscope data acquisition. The new tools are aimed at providing fast and robust procedures for unsupervised cryo-EM structure determination, with potential applications for on-the-fly processing and the development of flexible, high-throughput structure determination pipelines. We illustrate their potential on 12 publicly available cryo-EM data sets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dari Kimanius
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | - Liyi Dong
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | - Grigory Sharov
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | - Takanori Nakane
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | | |
Collapse
|
16
|
Lees JA, Dias JM, Han S. Applications of Cryo-EM in small molecule and biologics drug design. Biochem Soc Trans 2021; 49:2627-2638. [PMID: 34812853 PMCID: PMC8786282 DOI: 10.1042/bst20210444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2021] [Revised: 10/22/2021] [Accepted: 10/27/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) is a powerful technique for the structural characterization of biological macromolecules, enabling high-resolution analysis of targets once inaccessible to structural interrogation. In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have begun to utilize cryo-EM for structure-based drug design. Structural analysis of integral membrane proteins, which comprise a large proportion of druggable targets and pose particular challenges for X-ray crystallography, by cryo-EM has enabled insights into important drug target families such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), ion channels, and solute carrier (SLCs) proteins. Structural characterization of biologics, such as vaccines, viral vectors, and gene therapy agents, has also become significantly more tractable. As a result, cryo-EM has begun to make major impacts in bringing critical therapeutics to market. In this review, we discuss recent instructive examples of impacts from cryo-EM in therapeutics design, focusing largely on its implementation at Pfizer. We also discuss the opportunities afforded by emerging technological advances in cryo-EM, and the prospects for future development of the technique.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joshua A. Lees
- Discovery Sciences, Medicine Design, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development, Groton, CT 06340, U.S.A
| | - Joao M. Dias
- Discovery Sciences, Medicine Design, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development, Groton, CT 06340, U.S.A
| | - Seungil Han
- Discovery Sciences, Medicine Design, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development, Groton, CT 06340, U.S.A
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Sorzano COS, Jiménez-Moreno A, Maluenda D, Ramírez-Aportela E, Martínez M, Cuervo A, Melero R, Conesa JJ, Sánchez-García R, Strelak D, Filipovic J, Fernández-Giménez E, de Isidro-Gómez F, Herreros D, Conesa P, Del Caño L, Fonseca Y, de la Morena JJ, Macías JR, Losana P, Marabini R, Carazo JM. Image Processing in Cryo-Electron Microscopy of Single Particles: The Power of Combining Methods. Methods Mol Biol 2021; 2305:257-289. [PMID: 33950394 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1406-8_13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Cryo-electron microscopy has established as a mature structural biology technique to elucidate the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules. The Coulomb potential of the sample is imaged by an electron beam, and fast semi-conductor detectors produce movies of the sample under study. These movies have to be further processed by a whole pipeline of image-processing algorithms that produce the final structure of the macromolecule. In this chapter, we illustrate this whole processing pipeline putting in value the strength of "meta algorithms," which are the combination of several algorithms, each one with different mathematical rationale, in order to distinguish correctly from incorrectly estimated parameters. We show how this strategy leads to superior performance of the whole pipeline as well as more confident assessments about the reconstructed structures. The "meta algorithms" strategy is common to many fields and, in particular, it has provided excellent results in bioinformatics. We illustrate this combination using the workflow engine, Scipion.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Ana Cuervo
- National Centre for Biotechnology (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Robert Melero
- National Centre for Biotechnology (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | | | | | - David Strelak
- National Centre for Biotechnology (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | | | | | | | | | - Pablo Conesa
- National Centre for Biotechnology (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
18
|
Malhotra S, Joseph AP, Thiyagalingam J, Topf M. Assessment of protein-protein interfaces in cryo-EM derived assemblies. Nat Commun 2021; 12:3399. [PMID: 34099703 PMCID: PMC8184972 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23692-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2020] [Accepted: 04/14/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Structures of macromolecular assemblies derived from cryo-EM maps often contain errors that become more abundant with decreasing resolution. Despite efforts in the cryo-EM community to develop metrics for map and atomistic model validation, thus far, no specific scoring metrics have been applied systematically to assess the interface between the assembly subunits. Here, we comprehensively assessed protein-protein interfaces in macromolecular assemblies derived by cryo-EM. To this end, we developed Protein Interface-score (PI-score), a density-independent machine learning-based metric, trained using the features of protein-protein interfaces in crystal structures. We evaluated 5873 interfaces in 1053 PDB-deposited cryo-EM models (including SARS-CoV-2 complexes), as well as the models submitted to CASP13 cryo-EM targets and the EM model challenge. We further inspected the interfaces associated with low-scores and found that some of those, especially in intermediate-to-low resolution (worse than 4 Å) structures, were not captured by density-based assessment scores. A combined score incorporating PI-score and fit-to-density score showed discriminatory power, allowing our method to provide a powerful complementary assessment tool for the ever-increasing number of complexes solved by cryo-EM.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sony Malhotra
- grid.4464.20000 0001 2161 2573Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK ,grid.14467.30Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, UK
| | - Agnel Praveen Joseph
- grid.14467.30Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, UK
| | - Jeyan Thiyagalingam
- grid.14467.30Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, UK
| | - Maya Topf
- grid.4464.20000 0001 2161 2573Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK ,grid.13648.380000 0001 2180 3484Centre for Structural Systems Biology, Leibniz-Institut für Experimentelle Virologie and Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
He J, Huang SY. Full-length de novo protein structure determination from cryo-EM maps using deep learning. Bioinformatics 2021; 37:3480-3490. [PMID: 33978686 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btab357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Revised: 04/03/2021] [Accepted: 05/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Advances in microscopy instruments and image processing algorithms have led to an increasing number of cryo-EM maps. However, building accurate models for the EM maps at 3-5 Å resolution remains a challenging and time-consuming process. With the rapid growth of deposited EM maps, there is an increasing gap between the maps and reconstructed/modeled 3-dimensional (3D) structures. Therefore, automatic reconstruction of atomic-accuracy full-atomstructures fromEMmaps is pressingly needed. RESULTS We present a semi-automatic de novo structure determination method using a deep learningbased framework, named as DeepMM, which builds atomic-accuracy all-atom models from cryo-EM maps at near-atomic resolution. In our method, the main-chain and Cα positions as well as their amino acid and secondary structure types are predicted in the EM map using Densely Connected Convolutional Networks. DeepMM was extensively validated on 40 simulated maps at 5 Å resolution and 30 experimental maps at 2.6-4.8 Å resolution as well as an EMDB-wide data set of 2931 experimental maps at 2.6-4.9 Å resolution, and compared with state-of-the-art algorithms including RosettaES, MAINMAST, and Phenix. Overall, our DeepMM algorithm obtained a significant improvement over existing methods in terms of both accuracy and coverage in building full-length protein structures on all test sets, demonstrating the efficacy and general applicability of DeepMM. AVAILABILITY http://huanglab.phys.hust.edu.cn/DeepMM. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jiahua He
- School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, P. R. China
| | - Sheng-You Huang
- School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, P. R. China
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Below 3 Å structure of apoferritin using a multipurpose TEM with a side entry cryoholder. Sci Rep 2021; 11:8395. [PMID: 33863933 PMCID: PMC8052451 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87183-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, the structural analysis of protein complexes by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) single particle analysis (SPA) has had great impact as a biophysical method. Many results of cryo-EM SPA are based on data acquired on state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscopes customized for SPA. These are currently only available in limited locations around the world, where securing machine time is highly competitive. One potential solution for this time-competitive situation is to reuse existing multi-purpose equipment, although this comes with performance limitations. Here, a multi-purpose TEM with a side entry cryo-holder was used to evaluate the potential of high-resolution SPA, resulting in a 3 Å resolution map of apoferritin with local resolution extending to 2.6 Å. This map clearly showed two positions of an aromatic side chain. Further, examination of optimal imaging conditions depending on two different multi-purpose electron microscope and camera combinations was carried out, demonstrating that higher magnifications are not always necessary or desirable. Since automation is effectively a requirement for large-scale data collection, and augmenting the multi-purpose equipment is possible, we expanded testing by acquiring data with SerialEM using a β-galactosidase test sample. This study demonstrates the possibilities of more widely available and established electron microscopes, and their applications for cryo-EM SPA.
Collapse
|
21
|
Wang X, Alnabati E, Aderinwale TW, Maddhuri Venkata Subramaniya SR, Terashi G, Kihara D. Detecting protein and DNA/RNA structures in cryo-EM maps of intermediate resolution using deep learning. Nat Commun 2021; 12:2302. [PMID: 33863902 PMCID: PMC8052361 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22577-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Accepted: 03/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
An increasing number of density maps of macromolecular structures, including proteins and DNA/RNA complexes, have been determined by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Although lately maps at a near-atomic resolution are routinely reported, there are still substantial fractions of maps determined at intermediate or low resolutions, where extracting structure information is not trivial. Here, we report a new computational method, Emap2sec+, which identifies DNA or RNA as well as the secondary structures of proteins in cryo-EM maps of 5 to 10 Å resolution. Emap2sec+ employs the deep Residual convolutional neural network. Emap2sec+ assigns structural labels with associated probabilities at each voxel in a cryo-EM map, which will help structure modeling in an EM map. Emap2sec+ showed stable and high assignment accuracy for nucleotides in low resolution maps and improved performance for protein secondary structure assignments than its earlier version when tested on simulated and experimental maps.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Wang
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Eman Alnabati
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Tunde W Aderinwale
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | | | - Genki Terashi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Daisuke Kihara
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Zhang B, Zhang W, Pearce R, Zhang Y, Shen HB. Fitting Low-Resolution Protein Structures into Cryo-EM Density Maps by Multiobjective Optimization of Global and Local Correlations. J Phys Chem B 2021; 125:528-538. [PMID: 33397114 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c09903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The rigid-body fitting of predicted structural models into cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) density maps is a necessary procedure for density map-guided protein structure determination and prediction. We proposed a novel multiobjective optimization protocol, MOFIT, which performs a rigid-body density-map fitting based on particle swarm optimization (PSO). MOFIT was tested on a large set of 292 nonhomologous single-domain proteins. Starting from structural models predicted by I-TASSER, MOFIT achieved an average coordinate root-mean-square deviation of 2.46 Å, which was 1.57, 2.79, and 3.95 Å lower than three leading single-objective function-based methods, where the differences were statistically significant with p-values of 1.65 × 10-6, 6.36 × 10-8, and 6.44 × 10-11 calculated using two-tail Student's t tests. Detailed analyses showed that the major advantages of MOFIT lie in the multiobjective protocol and the extensive PSO search simulations guided by the composite objective functions, which integrates complementary correlation coefficients from the global structure, local fragments, and individual residues with the cryo-EM density maps.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Biao Zhang
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai, China.,Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Wenyi Zhang
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
| | - Robin Pearce
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Hong-Bin Shen
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai, China
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Behkamal B, Naghibzadeh M, Pagnani A, Saberi MR, Al Nasr K. Solving the α-helix correspondence problem at medium-resolution Cryo-EM maps through modeling and 3D matching. J Mol Graph Model 2020; 103:107815. [PMID: 33338845 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2020.107815] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2020] [Revised: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 11/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has recently emerged as a prominent biophysical method for macromolecular structure determination. Many research efforts have been devoted to produce cryo-EM images, density maps, at near-atomic resolution. Despite many advances in technology, the resolution of the generated density maps may not be sufficiently adequate and informative to directly construct the atomic structure of proteins. At medium-resolution (∼4-10 Å), secondary structure elements (α-helices and β-sheets) are discernible, whereas finding the correspondence of secondary structure elements detected in the density map with those on the sequence remains a challenging problem. In this paper, an automatic framework is proposed to solve α-helix correspondence problem in three-dimensional space. Through modeling of the sequence with the aid of a novel strategy, the α-helix correspondence problem is initially transformed into a complete weighted bipartite graph matching problem. An innovative correlation-based scoring function based on a well-known and robust statistical method is proposed for weighting the graph. Moreover, two local optimization algorithms, which are Greedy and Improved Greedy algorithms, have been presented to find α-helix correspondence. A widely used data set including 16 reconstructed and 4 experimental cryo-EM maps were chosen to verify the accuracy and reliability of the proposed automatic method. The experimental results demonstrate that the automatic method is highly efficient (86.25% accuracy), robust (11.3% error rate), fast (∼1.4 s), and works independently from cryo-EM skeleton.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bahareh Behkamal
- Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, 9177948944, Iran.
| | - Mahmoud Naghibzadeh
- Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, 9177948944, Iran.
| | - Andrea Pagnani
- Department of Applied Science and Technology (DISAT), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, Torino, Italy; Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine (IIGM), IRCC-Candiolo, Candiolo, TO, Italy; INFN Sezione di Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, Torino, Italy
| | - Mohammad Reza Saberi
- Medicinal Chemistry Department, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; Bioinformatics Research group, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Kamal Al Nasr
- Department of Computer Science, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN, 37209, USA
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Saunders DC, Messmer J, Kusmartseva I, Beery ML, Yang M, Atkinson MA, Powers AC, Cartailler JP, Brissova M. Pancreatlas: Applying an Adaptable Framework to Map the Human Pancreas in Health and Disease. PATTERNS 2020; 1:100120. [PMID: 33294866 PMCID: PMC7691395 DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2020.100120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2020] [Revised: 08/31/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Human tissue phenotyping generates complex spatial information from numerous imaging modalities, yet images typically become static figures for publication, and original data and metadata are rarely available. While comprehensive image maps exist for some organs, most resources have limited support for multiplexed imaging or have non-intuitive user interfaces. Therefore, we built a Pancreatlas resource that integrates several technologies into a unique interface, allowing users to access richly annotated web pages, drill down to individual images, and deeply explore data online. The current version of Pancreatlas contains over 800 unique images acquired by whole-slide scanning, confocal microscopy, and imaging mass cytometry, and is available at https://www.pancreatlas.org. To create this human pancreas-specific biological imaging resource, we developed a React-based web application and Python-based application programming interface, collectively called Flexible Framework for Integrating and Navigating Data (FFIND), which can be adapted beyond Pancreatlas to meet countless imaging or other structured data-management needs. Human organ phenotyping databases benefit from intuitive user interfaces Pancreatlas resource enables exploration of bioimaging data from human pancreas The front-end framework of Pancreatlas, FFIND, is modular and easily adaptable FFIND provides structured data-exploration capabilities across countless domains
Scientists need cost-effective yet fully featured database solutions that facilitate large dataset sharing in a structured and easily digestible manner. Flexible Framework for Integrating and Navigating Data (FFIND) is a data-agnostic web application that is designed to easily connect existing databases with data-browsing clients. We used FFIND to build Pancreatlas, an online imaging resource containing datasets linking imaging data with clinical data to facilitate advances in the understanding of diabetes, pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer. FFIND architecture, which is available as open-source software, can be easily adapted to meet other field- or project-specific needs; we hope it will help data scientists reach a broader audience by reducing the development life cycle and providing familiar interactivity in communicating data and underlying stories.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Diane C Saunders
- Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - James Messmer
- Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Irina Kusmartseva
- Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Diabetes Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Maria L Beery
- Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Diabetes Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Mingder Yang
- Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Diabetes Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Mark A Atkinson
- Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Diabetes Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Diabetes Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Alvin C Powers
- Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.,VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, TN, USA.,Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Jean-Philippe Cartailler
- Creative Data Solutions Shared Resource, Center for Stem Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Marcela Brissova
- Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Zhang B, Zhang X, Pearce R, Shen HB, Zhang Y. A New Protocol for Atomic-Level Protein Structure Modeling and Refinement Using Low-to-Medium Resolution Cryo-EM Density Maps. J Mol Biol 2020; 432:5365-5377. [PMID: 32771523 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.07.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2020] [Revised: 07/14/2020] [Accepted: 07/31/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
The rapid progress of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) in structural biology has raised an urgent need for robust methods to create and refine atomic-level structural models using low-resolution EM density maps. We propose a new protocol to create initial models using I-TASSER protein structure prediction, followed by EM density map-based rigid-body structure fitting, flexible fragment adjustment and atomic-level structure refinement simulations. The protocol was tested on a large set of 285 non-homologous proteins and generated structural models with correct folds for 260 proteins, where 28% had RMSDs below 2 Å. Compared to other state-of-the-art methods, the major advantage of the proposed pipeline lies in the uniform structure prediction and refinement protocol, as well as the extensive structural re-assembly simulations, which allow for low-to-medium resolution EM density map-guided structure modeling starting from amino acid sequences. Interestingly, the quality of both the image fitting and subsequent structure refinement was found to be strongly correlated with the correctness of the initial I-TASSER models; this is mainly due to the different correlation patterns observed between force field and structural quality for the models with template modeling score (or TM-score, a metric quantifying the similarity of models to the native) above and below a threshold of 0.5. Overall, the results demonstrate a new avenue that is ready to use for large-scale cryo-EM-based structure modeling and atomic-level density map-guided structure refinement.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Biao Zhang
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai, China; Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Xi Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Robin Pearce
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Hong-Bin Shen
- Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai, China.
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Terashi G, Kagaya Y, Kihara D. MAINMASTseg: Automated Map Segmentation Method for Cryo-EM Density Maps with Symmetry. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:2634-2643. [PMID: 32197044 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.9b01110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Genki Terashi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States
| | - Yuki Kagaya
- Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, Aramaki Aza, Aoba 6-3-09, Aoba-Ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
| | - Daisuke Kihara
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Brillault L, Landsberg MJ. Preparation of Proteins and Macromolecular Assemblies for Cryo-electron Microscopy. Methods Mol Biol 2020; 2073:221-246. [PMID: 31612445 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9869-2_13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Cryo-electron microscopy has become popular as the penultimate step on the road to structure determination for many proteins and macromolecular assemblies. The process of obtaining high-resolution images of a purified biomolecular complex in an electron microscope often follows a long, and in many cases exhaustive screening process in which many iterative rounds of protein purification are employed and the sample preparation procedure progressively re-evaluated in order to improve the distribution of particles visualized under the electron microscope, and thus maximize the opportunity for high-resolution structure determination. Typically, negative stain electron microscopy is employed to obtain a preliminary assessment of the sample quality, followed by cryo-EM which first requires the identification of optimal vitrification conditions. The original methods for frozen-hydrated specimen preparation developed over 40 years ago still enjoy widespread use today, although recent developments have set the scene for a future where more systematic and high-throughput approaches to the preparation of vitrified biomolecular complexes may be routinely employed. Here we summarize current approaches and ongoing innovations for the preparation of frozen-hydrated single particle specimens for cryo-EM, highlighting some of the commonly encountered problems and approaches that may help overcome these.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lou Brillault
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Michael J Landsberg
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia.
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
A microtubule RELION-based pipeline for cryo-EM image processing. J Struct Biol 2019; 209:107402. [PMID: 31610239 PMCID: PMC6961209 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsb.2019.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2019] [Revised: 10/04/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
MiRP is a pipeline for processing cryo-EM images of microtubules in RELION. MiRP manages microtubule heterogeneity and pseudo-symmetry. MiRP reduces errors in angular and translational alignment. MiRP improved reconstructions from three different microtubule datasets.
Microtubules are polar filaments built from αβ-tubulin heterodimers that exhibit a range of architectures in vitro and in vivo. Tubulin heterodimers are arranged helically in the microtubule wall but many physiologically relevant architectures exhibit a break in helical symmetry known as the seam. Noisy 2D cryo-electron microscopy projection images of pseudo-helical microtubules therefore depict distinct but highly similar views owing to the high structural similarity of α- and β-tubulin. The determination of the αβ-tubulin register and seam location during image processing is essential for alignment accuracy that enables determination of biologically relevant structures. Here we present a pipeline designed for image processing and high-resolution reconstruction of cryo-electron microscopy microtubule datasets, based in the popular and user-friendly RELION image-processing package, Microtubule RELION-based Pipeline (MiRP). The pipeline uses a combination of supervised classification and prior knowledge about geometric lattice constraints in microtubules to accurately determine microtubule architecture and seam location. The presented method is fast and semi-automated, producing near-atomic resolution reconstructions with test datasets that contain a range of microtubule architectures and binding proteins.
Collapse
|
29
|
Malhotra S, Träger S, Dal Peraro M, Topf M. Modelling structures in cryo-EM maps. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2019; 58:105-114. [PMID: 31394387 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2019.05.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2019] [Revised: 05/23/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Recent advances in structure determination of sub-cellular structures using cryo-electron microscopy and tomography have enabled us to understand their architecture in a more detailed manner and gain insight into their function. The choice of approach to use for atomic model building, fitting, refinement and validation in the 3D map resulting from these experiments depends primarily on the resolution of the map and the prior information on the corresponding model. Here, we survey some of such methods and approaches and highlight their uses in specific recent examples.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sony Malhotra
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom
| | - Sylvain Träger
- Institute of Bioengineering, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
| | - Matteo Dal Peraro
- Institute of Bioengineering, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
| | - Maya Topf
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom.
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Marques MA, Purdy MD, Yeager M. CryoEM maps are full of potential. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2019; 58:214-223. [PMID: 31400843 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2019.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Revised: 04/19/2019] [Accepted: 04/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Electron microscopy is based on elastic scattering due to Coulomb forces between the incident electrons and the sample; thus, electron scattering is dependent on the charge distribution in the sample. Unlike atomic scattering factors for X-rays, electron scattering factors for some atoms are strongly dependent on scattering angle, and the scattering factor for ionic oxygen is negative at low scattering angle. This phenomenon can result in a significant negative contribution to Coulomb potential maps by oxygen and can result in deviations in the positions of positive map features from atomic centers. An important factor that can also complicate the interpretation of cryoEM maps is the exquisite sensitivity of macromolecules to damage from electron irradiation, especially the carboxylates of acidic amino acids. Ideally, when compared with electron density maps derived by X-ray crystallography, Coulomb potential maps can provide additional details about the electrostatic environment and charge state of atoms. Enhancements in model building, refinement and computational simulation will be required to realize the full potential of EM-derived maps to reveal deeper insight into the electronic structure and functional properties of macromolecular complexes and their interactions with binding partners, ligands, cofactors, and drugs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mayra A Marques
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA; Programa de Biologia Estrutural, Instituto de Bioquímica Médica Leopoldo de Meis, Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Biologia Estrutural e Bioimagem, Centro Nacional de Ressonância Magnética Nuclear Jiri Jonas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Michael D Purdy
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA
| | - Mark Yeager
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA; Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA; Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Protein secondary structure detection in intermediate-resolution cryo-EM maps using deep learning. Nat Methods 2019; 16:911-917. [PMID: 31358979 PMCID: PMC6717539 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-019-0500-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2018] [Accepted: 06/24/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
An increasing number of protein structures have been solved by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Although structures determined at near-atomic resolution are now routinely reported, many density maps are still determined at an intermediate resolution, where extracting structure information is still a challenge. We have developed a computational method, Emap2sec, which identifies the secondary structures of proteins (α helices, β sheets, and other structures) in an EM map of 5 to 10 Å resolution. Emap2sec uses a 3D deep convolutional neural network to assign secondary structure to each grid point in an EM map. We tested Emap2sec on 6.0 and 10.0 Å resolution EM maps simulated from 34 structures, as well as on 43 maps determined experimentally at 5.0 to 9.5 Å resolution. Emap2sec was able to clearly identify the secondary structures in many maps tested, and showed substantially better performance than existing methods.
Collapse
|
32
|
Vamathevan J, Apweiler R, Birney E. Biomolecular Data Resources: Bioinformatics Infrastructure for Biomedical Data Science. Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci 2019. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-072018-021321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Technological advances have continuously driven the generation of bio-molecular data and the development of bioinformatics infrastructure, which enables data reuse for scientific discovery. Several types of data management resources have arisen, such as data deposition databases, added-value databases or knowledgebases, and biology-driven portals. In this review, we provide a unique overview of the gradual evolution of these resources and discuss the goals and features that must be considered in their development. With the increasing application of genomics in the health care context and with 60 to 500 million whole genomes estimated to be sequenced by 2022, biomedical research infrastructure is transforming, too. Systems for federated access, portable tools, provision of reference data, and interpretation tools will enable researchers to derive maximal benefits from these data. Collaboration, coordination, and sustainability of data resources are key to ensure that biomedical knowledge management can scale with technology shifts and growing data volumes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Vamathevan
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Rolf Apweiler
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Ewan Birney
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Kandiah E, Giraud T, de Maria Antolinos A, Dobias F, Effantin G, Flot D, Hons M, Schoehn G, Susini J, Svensson O, Leonard GA, Mueller-Dieckmann C. CM01: a facility for cryo-electron microscopy at the European Synchrotron. Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol 2019; 75:528-535. [PMID: 31205015 PMCID: PMC6580229 DOI: 10.1107/s2059798319006880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2019] [Accepted: 05/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent improvements in direct electron detectors, microscope technology and software provided the stimulus for a `quantum leap' in the application of cryo-electron microscopy in structural biology, and many national and international centres have since been created in order to exploit this. Here, a new facility for cryo-electron microscopy focused on single-particle reconstruction of biological macromolecules that has been commissioned at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is presented. The facility is operated by a consortium of institutes co-located on the European Photon and Neutron Campus and is managed in a similar fashion to a synchrotron X-ray beamline. It has been open to the ESRF structural biology user community since November 2017 and will remain open during the 2019 ESRF-EBS shutdown.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eaazhisai Kandiah
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - Thierry Giraud
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | | | - Fabien Dobias
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - Gregory Effantin
- Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - David Flot
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - Michael Hons
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Grenoble Outstation, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - Guy Schoehn
- Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - Jean Susini
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - Olof Svensson
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | - Gordon A. Leonard
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38042 Grenoble, France
| | | |
Collapse
|
34
|
Leng J, Shoura M, McLeish TCB, Real AN, Hardey M, McCafferty J, Ranson NA, Harris SA. Securing the future of research computing in the biosciences. PLoS Comput Biol 2019; 15:e1006958. [PMID: 31095554 PMCID: PMC6521984 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Improvements in technology often drive scientific discovery. Therefore, research requires sustained investment in the latest equipment and training for the researchers who are going to use it. Prioritising and administering infrastructure investment is challenging because future needs are difficult to predict. In the past, highly computationally demanding research was associated primarily with particle physics and astronomy experiments. However, as biology becomes more quantitative and bioscientists generate more and more data, their computational requirements may ultimately exceed those of physical scientists. Computation has always been central to bioinformatics, but now imaging experiments have rapidly growing data processing and storage requirements. There is also an urgent need for new modelling and simulation tools to provide insight and understanding of these biophysical experiments. Bioscience communities must work together to provide the software and skills training needed in their areas. Research-active institutions need to recognise that computation is now vital in many more areas of discovery and create an environment where it can be embraced. The public must also become aware of both the power and limitations of computing, particularly with respect to their health and personal data.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joanna Leng
- School of Computing, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Massa Shoura
- School of Pathology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
| | | | - Alan N. Real
- Advanced Research Computing, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Mariann Hardey
- Advanced Research Computing, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom
- School of Business, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom
| | | | - Neil A. Ranson
- Astbury Centre for Structural and Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
- School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Sarah A. Harris
- Astbury Centre for Structural and Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Thompson RF, Iadanza MG, Hesketh EL, Rawson S, Ranson NA. Collection, pre-processing and on-the-fly analysis of data for high-resolution, single-particle cryo-electron microscopy. Nat Protoc 2019; 14:100-118. [PMID: 30487656 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-018-0084-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
The dramatic growth in the use of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to generate high-resolution structures of macromolecular complexes has changed the landscape of structural biology. The majority of structures deposited in the Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB) at higher than 4-Å resolution were collected on Titan Krios microscopes. Although the pipeline for single-particle data collection is becoming routine, there is much variation in how sessions are set up. Furthermore, when collection is under way, there are a range of approaches for efficiently moving and pre-processing these data. Here, we present a standard operating procedure for single-particle data collection with Thermo Fisher Scientific EPU software, using the two most common direct electron detectors (the Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon 3 (F3EC) and the Gatan K2), as well as a strategy for structuring these data to enable efficient pre-processing and on-the-fly monitoring of data collection. This protocol takes 3-6 h to set up a typical automated data collection session.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca F Thompson
- The Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
| | - Matthew G Iadanza
- The Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | - Emma L Hesketh
- The Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | - Shaun Rawson
- The Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.,The Harvard Cryo-Electron Microscopy Center for Structural Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Neil A Ranson
- The Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
Ortega DR, Oikonomou CM, Ding HJ, Rees-Lee P, Jensen GJ. ETDB-Caltech: A blockchain-based distributed public database for electron tomography. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0215531. [PMID: 30986271 PMCID: PMC6464211 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2018] [Accepted: 04/03/2019] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Three-dimensional electron microscopy techniques like electron tomography provide valuable insights into cellular structures, and present significant challenges for data storage and dissemination. Here we explored a novel method to publicly release more than 11,000 such datasets, more than 30 TB in total, collected by our group. Our method, based on a peer-to-peer file sharing network built around a blockchain ledger, offers a distributed solution to data storage. In addition, we offer a user-friendly browser-based interface, https://etdb.caltech.edu, for anyone interested to explore and download our data. We discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of this system and provide tools for other groups to mine our data and/or use the same approach to share their own imaging datasets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Davi R. Ortega
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | - Catherine M. Oikonomou
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | - H. Jane Ding
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | - Prudence Rees-Lee
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | | | - Grant J. Jensen
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Pasadena, California, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
Braitbard M, Schneidman-Duhovny D, Kalisman N. Integrative Structure Modeling: Overview and Assessment. Annu Rev Biochem 2019; 88:113-135. [PMID: 30830798 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-013118-111429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Integrative structure modeling computationally combines data from multiple sources of information with the aim of obtaining structural insights that are not revealed by any single approach alone. In the first part of this review, we survey the commonly used sources of structural information and the computational aspects of model building. Throughout the past decade, integrative modeling was applied to various biological systems, with a focus on large protein complexes. Recent progress in the field of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has resolved many of these complexes to near-atomic resolution. In the second part of this review, we compare a range of published integrative models with their higher-resolution counterparts with the aim of critically assessing their accuracy. This comparison gives a favorable view of integrative modeling and demonstrates its ability to yield accurate and informative results. We discuss possible roles of integrative modeling in the new era of cryo-EM and highlight future challenges and directions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Merav Braitbard
- Department of Biological Chemistry, Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel;
| | - Dina Schneidman-Duhovny
- Department of Biological Chemistry, Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel; .,School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel;
| | - Nir Kalisman
- Department of Biological Chemistry, Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel;
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Beckers M, Jakobi AJ, Sachse C. Thresholding of cryo-EM density maps by false discovery rate control. IUCRJ 2019; 6:18-33. [PMID: 30713700 PMCID: PMC6327189 DOI: 10.1107/s2052252518014434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2018] [Accepted: 10/12/2018] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Cryo-EM now commonly generates close-to-atomic resolution as well as intermediate resolution maps from macromolecules observed in isolation and in situ. Interpreting these maps remains a challenging task owing to poor signal in the highest resolution shells and the necessity to select a threshold for density analysis. In order to facilitate this process, a statistical framework for the generation of confidence maps by multiple hypothesis testing and false discovery rate (FDR) control has been developed. In this way, three-dimensional confidence maps contain signal separated from background noise in the form of local detection rates of EM density values. It is demonstrated that confidence maps and FDR-based thresholding can be used for the interpretation of near-atomic resolution single-particle structures as well as lower resolution maps determined by subtomogram averaging. Confidence maps represent a conservative way of interpreting molecular structures owing to minimized noise. At the same time they provide a detection error with respect to background noise, which is associated with the density and is particularly beneficial for the interpretation of weaker cryo-EM densities in cases of conformational flexibility and lower occupancy of bound molecules and ions in the structure.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Beckers
- Structural and Computational Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Faculty of Biosciences, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Arjen J. Jakobi
- Structural and Computational Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Hamburg Unit c/o DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
- The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI), Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Carsten Sachse
- Structural and Computational Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C-3/Structural Biology), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Goodstadt MN, Marti-Renom MA. Communicating Genome Architecture: Biovisualization of the Genome, from Data Analysis and Hypothesis Generation to Communication and Learning. J Mol Biol 2018; 431:1071-1087. [PMID: 30419242 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2018.11.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2018] [Revised: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 11/01/2018] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Genome discoveries at the core of biology are made by visual description and exploration of the cell, from microscopic sketches and biochemical mapping to computational analysis and spatial modeling. We outline the experimental and visualization techniques that have been developed recently which capture the three-dimensional interactions regulating how genes are expressed. We detail the challenges faced in integration of the data to portray the components and organization and their dynamic landscape. The goal is more than a single data-driven representation as interactive visualization for de novo research is paramount to decipher insights on genome organization in space.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mike N Goodstadt
- CNAG-CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona 08028, Spain; Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain.
| | - Marc A Marti-Renom
- CNAG-CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona 08028, Spain; Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona 08010, Spain.
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
Zivanov J, Nakane T, Forsberg BO, Kimanius D, Hagen WJ, Lindahl E, Scheres SH. New tools for automated high-resolution cryo-EM structure determination in RELION-3. eLife 2018; 7:42166. [PMID: 30412051 PMCID: PMC6250425 DOI: 10.7554/elife.42166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3206] [Impact Index Per Article: 534.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Here, we describe the third major release of RELION. CPU-based vector acceleration has been added in addition to GPU support, which provides flexibility in use of resources and avoids memory limitations. Reference-free autopicking with Laplacian-of-Gaussian filtering and execution of jobs from python allows non-interactive processing during acquisition, including 2D-classification, de novo model generation and 3D-classification. Per-particle refinement of CTF parameters and correction of estimated beam tilt provides higher resolution reconstructions when particles are at different heights in the ice, and/or coma-free alignment has not been optimal. Ewald sphere curvature correction improves resolution for large particles. We illustrate these developments with publicly available data sets: together with a Bayesian approach to beam-induced motion correction it leads to resolution improvements of 0.2–0.7 Å compared to previous RELION versions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jasenko Zivanov
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Takanori Nakane
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Björn O Forsberg
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Dari Kimanius
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Wim Jh Hagen
- Structural and Computational Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.,Cryo-Electron Microscopy Service Platform, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Erik Lindahl
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.,Department of Applied Physics, Swedish e-Science Research Center, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | |
Collapse
|
41
|
Ellenberg J, Swedlow JR, Barlow M, Cook CE, Sarkans U, Patwardhan A, Brazma A, Birney E. A call for public archives for biological image data. Nat Methods 2018; 15:849-854. [PMID: 30377375 PMCID: PMC6884425 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-018-0195-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Public data archives are the backbone of modern biological research. Biomolecular archives are well established, but bioimaging resources lag behind them. The technology required for imaging archives is now available, thus enabling the creation of the first public bioimage datasets. We present the rationale for the construction of bioimage archives and their associated databases to underpin the next revolution in bioinformatics discovery.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jan Ellenberg
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | - Jason R Swedlow
- Division of Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
| | - Mary Barlow
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Charles E Cook
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Ugis Sarkans
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Ardan Patwardhan
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Alvis Brazma
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Ewan Birney
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Ribosomes and cryo-EM: a duet. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2018; 52:1-7. [DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2018.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2017] [Revised: 06/25/2018] [Accepted: 07/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
|
43
|
Terashi G, Kihara D. De novo main-chain modeling with MAINMAST in 2015/2016 EM Model Challenge. J Struct Biol 2018; 204:351-359. [PMID: 30075190 PMCID: PMC6179447 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsb.2018.07.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2018] [Revised: 07/13/2018] [Accepted: 07/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Protein tertiary structure modeling is a critical step for the interpretation of three dimensional (3D) election microscopy density. Our group participated the 2015/2016 EM Model Challenge using the MAINMAST software for a de novo main chain modeling. The software generates local dense points using the mean shifting algorithm, and connects them into Cα models by calculating the minimum spanning tree and the longest path. Subsequently, full atom structure models are generated, which are subject to structural refinement. Here, we summarize the qualities of our submitted models and examine successful and unsuccessful models, including 3D models we did not submit to the Challenge. Our protocol using the MAINMAST software was sometimes able to build correct conformations with 3.4–5.1 Å RMSD. Unsuccessful models had failure of chain traces, however, their Cα positions and some local structures were quite correctly built. For evaluate the quality of the models, the MAINMAST software provides a confidence score for each Cα position from the consensus of top 100 scoring models.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Genki Terashi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Daisuke Kihara
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
Fine details in complex environments: the power of cryo-electron tomography. Biochem Soc Trans 2018; 46:807-816. [PMID: 29934301 PMCID: PMC6103461 DOI: 10.1042/bst20170351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2018] [Revised: 05/09/2018] [Accepted: 05/11/2018] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Cryo-electron tomography (CET) is uniquely suited to obtain structural information from a wide range of biological scales, integrating and bridging knowledge from molecules to cells. In particular, CET can be used to visualise molecular structures in their native environment. Depending on the experiment, a varying degree of resolutions can be achieved, with the first near-atomic molecular structures becoming recently available. The power of CET has increased significantly in the last 5 years, in parallel with improvements in cryo-EM hardware and software that have also benefited single-particle reconstruction techniques. In this review, we cover the typical CET pipeline, starting from sample preparation, to data collection and processing, and highlight in particular the recent developments that support structural biology in situ. We provide some examples that highlight the importance of structure determination of molecules embedded within their native environment, and propose future directions to improve CET performance and accessibility.
Collapse
|
45
|
Kleywegt GJ, Velankar S, Patwardhan A. Structural biology data archiving - where we are and what lies ahead. FEBS Lett 2018; 592:2153-2167. [PMID: 29749603 PMCID: PMC6019198 DOI: 10.1002/1873-3468.13086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2018] [Revised: 04/25/2018] [Accepted: 04/30/2018] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
For almost 50 years, structural biology has endeavoured to conserve and share its experimental data and their interpretations (usually, atomistic models) through global public archives such as the Protein Data Bank, Electron Microscopy Data Bank and Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank (BMRB). These archives are treasure troves of freely accessible data that document our quest for molecular or atomic understanding of biological function and processes in health and disease. They have prepared the field to tackle new archiving challenges as more and more (combinations of) techniques are being utilized to elucidate structure at ever increasing length scales. Furthermore, the field has made substantial efforts to develop validation methods that help users to assess the reliability of structures and to identify the most appropriate data for their needs. In this Review, we present an overview of public data archives in structural biology and discuss the importance of validation for users and producers of structural data. Finally, we sketch our efforts to integrate structural data with bioimaging data and with other sources of biological data. This will make relevant structural information available and more easily discoverable for a wide range of scientists.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Gerard J. Kleywegt
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL‐EBI)CambridgeUK
| | - Sameer Velankar
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL‐EBI)CambridgeUK
| | - Ardan Patwardhan
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL‐EBI)CambridgeUK
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Abbott S, Iudin A, Korir PK, Somasundharam S, Patwardhan A. EMDB Web Resources. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2018; 61:5.10.1-5.10.12. [PMID: 30008982 DOI: 10.1002/cpbi.48] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
The Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB; http://emdb-empiar.org) is a global openly-accessible archive of biomolecular and cellular 3D reconstructions derived from electron microscopy (EM) data. EMBL-EBI develops web-based resources to facilitate the reuse of EMDB data. Here we provide protocols for how these resources can be used for searching EMDB, visualising EMDB structures, statistically analysing EMDB content and checking the validity of EMDB structures. Protocols for searching include quick link categories from the main page, links to latest entries released during the weekly cycle, filtered browsing of the entire archive and a form-based search. For visualisation, the 'Volume Slicer' enables slices of EMDB entries to be visualised interactively and in three orthogonal directions. The EMstats web service (https://emdb-empiar.org/emstats) provides up-to-date interactive statistical charts analysing EMDB. All EMDB entries have 'visual analysis' pages that provide basic validation information for the entry.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sanja Abbott
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Andrii Iudin
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Paul K Korir
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Sriram Somasundharam
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Ardan Patwardhan
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD, UK
| |
Collapse
|
47
|
Madej MG, Ziegler CM. Dawning of a new era in TRP channel structural biology by cryo-electron microscopy. Pflugers Arch 2018; 470:213-225. [PMID: 29344776 DOI: 10.1007/s00424-018-2107-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2017] [Accepted: 01/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) permits the determination of atomic protein structures by averaging large numbers of individual projection images recorded at cryogenic temperatures-a method termed single-particle analysis. The cryo-preservation traps proteins within a thin glass-like ice layer, making literally a freeze image of proteins in solution. Projections of randomly adopted orientations are merged to reconstruct a 3D density map. While atomic resolution for highly symmetric viruses was achieved already in 2009, the development of new sensitive and fast electron detectors has enabled cryo-EM for smaller and asymmetrical proteins including fragile membrane proteins. As one of the most important structural biology methods at present, cryo-EM was awarded in October 2017 with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The molecular understanding of Transient-Receptor-Potential (TRP) channels has been boosted tremendously by cryo-EM single-particle analysis. Several near-atomic and atomic structures gave important mechanistic insights, e.g., into ion permeation and selectivity, gating, as well as into the activation of this enigmatic and medically important membrane protein family by various chemical and physical stimuli. Lastly, these structures have set the starting point for the rational design of TRP channel-targeted therapeutics to counteract life-threatening channelopathies. Here, we attempt a brief introduction to the method, review the latest advances in cryo-EM structure determination of TRP channels, and discuss molecular insights into the channel function based on the wealth of TRP channel cryo-EM structures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M Gregor Madej
- Department of Structural Biology, Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, D-93053, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Christine M Ziegler
- Department of Structural Biology, Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, D-93053, Regensburg, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Cook CE, Bergman MT, Cochrane G, Apweiler R, Birney E. The European Bioinformatics Institute in 2017: data coordination and integration. Nucleic Acids Res 2018; 46:D21-D29. [PMID: 29186510 PMCID: PMC5753251 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx1154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2017] [Revised: 10/30/2017] [Accepted: 11/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) supports life-science research throughout the world by providing open data, open-source software and analytical tools, and technical infrastructure (https://www.ebi.ac.uk). We accommodate an increasingly diverse range of data types and integrate them, so that biologists in all disciplines can explore life in ever-increasing detail. We maintain over 40 data resources, many of which are run collaboratively with partners in 16 countries (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/services). Submissions continue to increase exponentially: our data storage has doubled in less than two years to 120 petabytes. Recent advances in cellular imaging and single-cell sequencing techniques are generating a vast amount of high-dimensional data, bringing to light new cell types and new perspectives on anatomy. Accordingly, one of our main focus areas is integrating high-quality information from bioimaging, biobanking and other types of molecular data. This is reflected in our deep involvement in Open Targets, stewarding of plant phenotyping standards (MIAPPE) and partnership in the Human Cell Atlas data coordination platform, as well as the 2017 launch of the Omics Discovery Index. This update gives a birds-eye view of EMBL-EBI's approach to data integration and service development as genomics begins to enter the clinic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Charles E Cook
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Mary T Bergman
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Guy Cochrane
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Rolf Apweiler
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Ewan Birney
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Baldwin PR, Tan YZ, Eng ET, Rice WJ, Noble AJ, Negro CJ, Cianfrocco MA, Potter CS, Carragher B. Big data in cryoEM: automated collection, processing and accessibility of EM data. Curr Opin Microbiol 2017; 43:1-8. [PMID: 29100109 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2017] [Revised: 09/27/2017] [Accepted: 10/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
The scope and complexity of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) data has greatly increased, and will continue to do so, due to recent and ongoing technical breakthroughs that have led to much improved resolutions for macromolecular structures solved using this method. This big data explosion includes single particle data as well as tomographic tilt series, both generally acquired as direct detector movies of ∼10-100 frames per image or per tilt-series. We provide a brief survey of the developments leading to the current status, and describe existing cryoEM pipelines, with an emphasis on the scope of data acquisition, methods for automation, and use of cloud storage and computing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Philip R Baldwin
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Yong Zi Tan
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Edward T Eng
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - William J Rice
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Alex J Noble
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Carl J Negro
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Michael A Cianfrocco
- Life Sciences Institute and Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Clinton S Potter
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Bridget Carragher
- The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
50
|
Helliwell JR. New developments in crystallography: exploring its technology, methods and scope in the molecular biosciences. Biosci Rep 2017; 37:BSR20170204. [PMID: 28572170 PMCID: PMC6434086 DOI: 10.1042/bsr20170204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2017] [Revised: 05/31/2017] [Accepted: 06/01/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Since the Protein Data Bank (PDB) was founded in 1971, there are now over 120,000 depositions, the majority of which are from X-ray crystallography and 90% of those made use of synchrotron beamlines. At the Cambridge Structure Database (CSD), founded in 1965, there are more than 800,000 'small molecule' crystal structure depositions and a very large number of those are relevant in the biosciences as ligands or cofactors. The technology for crystal structure analysis is still developing rapidly both at synchrotrons and in home labs. Determination of the details of the hydrogen atoms in biological macromolecules is well served using neutrons as probe. Large multi-macromolecular complexes cause major challenges to crystallization; electrons as probes offer unique advantages here. Methods developments naturally accompany technology change, mainly incremental but some, such as the tuneability, intensity and collimation of synchrotron radiation, have effected radical changes in capability of biological crystallography. In the past few years, the X-ray laser has taken X-ray crystallography measurement times into the femtosecond range. In terms of applications many new discoveries have been made in the molecular biosciences. The scope of crystallographic techniques is indeed very wide. As examples, new insights into chemical catalysis of enzymes and relating ligand bound structures to thermodynamics have been gained but predictive power is seen as not yet achieved. Metal complexes are also an emerging theme for biomedicine applications. Our studies of coloration of live and cooked lobsters proved to be an unexpected favourite with the public and schoolchildren. More generally, public understanding of the biosciences and crystallography's role within the field have been greatly enhanced by the United Nations International Year of Crystallography coordinated by the International Union of Crystallography. This topical review describes each of these areas along with illustrative results to document the scope of each methodology.
Collapse
|