RESOLUTION LIMITS IN THE STUDY OF CARDIOLIPIN CRYSTALS BY TEM, SAED AND AFM

Aggregates of cardiolipin molecules have been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) a nd atomic force microscopy (AFM). It is found that cardiolipin molecul es are very susceptible to electron damage; the lethal dose being of 8 0 el . nm(-2). The finest organized structures revealed by TEM after i mage recording with the minimum dose technique are rather coarse, abou t 1 nm, whereas SAED reveals the presence of periodicities down to 0.2 nm, in accordance to the images obtained by AFM, whose application ha s enabled us to reveal substructures of a size of about 0.2 nm.