The charge properties of the gas-liquid interface determine the protein orientation advantage of cryo-electron microscopy

On August 25, 2021, the research group of Researcher Zhang Xinzheng from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences published an online publication titled "Effect of charge on protein preferred orientation at the air-water interface in cryo " in the Journal of Structural Biology .

Three-dimensional reconstruction of cryo-electron microscopy requires proteins to be randomly distributed in amorphous ice during freezing and preparation.

Li Bufan, Zhang Xinzheng's research group from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted mechanism research on the common protein dominant orientation problem in cryo-electron microscopy three-dimensional reconstruction, and found that the protein is adsorbed on the gas-liquid interface, and its orientation is controlled by the charge carried by the gas-liquid interface (Figure)

Li Bufan, a doctoral student in the Zhang Xinzheng research group of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the first author, and researcher Zhang Xinzheng is the corresponding author of this article

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(Contribution: Zhang Xinzheng Research Group)