The METi platform now houses a fully automated cryo-electron microscope (Talos Arctica, ThermoFisher Scientific) equipped with a direct electron detection camera coupled to an energy loss filter (K2 summit BioQuantum, Gatan). This transmission electron microscope, dedicated to high resolution/high throughput observation of biological and organic samples frozen in amorphous ice is now fully operational.
One of the major applications of cryo-electron microscopy is macromolecules 3D structure determination at a quasi-atomic scale. This approach, which recently was used to access coronaviruses structure, opens up important perspectives in structural biology, pharmacology, virology, enzymology… During the qualification tests, a first series of image acquisition led to the determination of the structure of apoferritin, a “test” enzyme well known of structural biologists, with a resolution of 2.35 Å in a few days.
This Talos Arctica will also make it possible to study the three-dimensional structure of cells or other nano-objects, biological or not, by cryo-electron tomography. With this new device, Toulouse joins the small club of French sites equipped with high-throughput / high-resolution cryo-microscopes. Installed in the new 4R4 building of the Center for Integrative Biology, the Toulouse Talos Arctica is now open to the whole sceintific community.
Apoferritin molecules observed on the Toulouse Talos Arctica microcope (right) and 3D structure of apoferritin resolved at 2.35 Å (middle: global surface view; right: structure detail and derived atomic model).
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