Structure analysis of soluble proteins using electron crystallography

Electron crystallography as a structural determination technique has grown dramatically in use over recent years, Improvements in microscopes, equipme nt, practical techniques, computation facilities and image processing metho ds are reflected in the increasing number of near-atomic resolution structu res that have been published. In this review we shall summarize the techniques involved in structure dete rmination of soluble proteins using electron crystallography. Many soluble protein structures have been investigated in this manner over the past two decades. Here we present several examples where a variety of approaches hav e been used to gradually increase the information obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.