• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.9
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• pp.538-544
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• 2023

The formation of uniform vitreous ice is a crucial step in the preparation of samples for cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Despite the rapid technological progress in EM, controlling the thickness of vitreous ice on sample grids with reproducibility remains a major obstacle to obtaining high-quality data in cryo-EM imaging. The commonly employed classical blotting process faces the problem of excess water that cannot be absorbed by the filter paper, resulting in the formation of thick and heterogeneous ice. In this study, we propose a novel approach that combines the recently developed nanowire self-wicking technique with the classical blotting method to effectively control the thickness and homogeneity of vitrified ice. With simple procedures, we generated a copper oxide spike (COS) grid by inducing COSs on commercially available copper grids, which can effectively remove excess water during the blotting procedure without damaging the holey carbon membrane. The ice thickness could be controlled with good reproducibility compared to non-oxidized grids. Incorporated into other EM techniques, our new modification method is an effective option for obtaining high-quality data during cryo-EM imaging.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.51
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• pp.16.1-16.7
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• 2021

Electron microscopy (EM) is an essential imaging method in biological sciences. Since biological specimens are exposed to radiation and vacuum conditions during EM observations, they die due to chemical bond breakage and desiccation. However, some organisms belonging to the taxa of bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals (including beetles, ticks, and tardigrades) have been reported to survive hostile scanning EM (SEM) conditions since the onset of EM. The surviving organisms were observed (i) without chemical fixation, (ii) after mounting to a precooled cold stage, (iii) using cryo-SEM, or (iv) after coating with a thin polymer layer, respectively. Combined use of these techniques may provide a better condition for preservation and live imaging of multicellular organisms for a long time beyond live-cell EM.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 2012

For TEM study of biological samples or polymers that are contained in organic structure, it is often required that the sample is prepared by using ultramicrotome and stained with proper agents to increase the contrast of organic structure. In this study, we investigated an efficient TEM sample preparation method for ductile heterogeneity material by using ultramicrotomy. Cryo-ultramicrotomy is a suitable method that is capable of rendering sample hardness for various ductile materials. However, it has several factors to consider, such as experimental cost, working time and finding the optimal staining conditions. To satisfy these considerations, we prepared TEM sample by using ultramicrotome without cryofunction, and secured the sample hardness by applying the staining process prior to ultrathin sectioning. The cross-linked polyethylene structure in the sample was stained with the 2% $RuO_4$ solution in a sealed test tube for 24 hours at $4^{\circ}C$. After the sample staining, ultrathin sections of sample were prepared using ultramicrotome. As a result, it was revealed that the difficulties associated with staining of ultrathin sections prepared by low-temperature conditions were improved. In addition, appropriate staining depth of sample could be selected for sectioning process. The quality of TEM sample obtained by using this method was better than that of cryo-ultramicroscopy. Finally, it is expected that our method could be effectively applied in TEM sample preparation for a variety of nano-bio convergence materials.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.185-193
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• 2008

An experimental comparison of the detection properties between imaging plate and film for recording the electron diffraction pattern was carried out on a radiation-sensitive material, an aluminum trihydroxide(gibbsite, ${\gamma}-Al(OH)_3$), through the electron beam irradiation. Because the imaging plate has a wide dynamic range sufficient for recording extremely low- and high-electron intensities, the range of spatial frequency for the diffraction pattern acquired by the imaging plate was extended to two times larger than the range by the film, especially at a low electron dose condition(${\leq}0.1\;e^-/{\mu}m^2$). It is also demonstrated that the imaging plate showed better resolving power for discriminating fine intensity levels even in saturated transmitted beam. Hence, in the respect of investigating the structures of radiation-sensitive materials and cryo-biological specimens, our experimental demonstrations suggest that the imaging plate technique may be a good choice for those studies, which have to use an extremely low electron intensity for recording.

• ALGAE
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.479-483
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• 2006

In preparation of the biological samples for electron microscopy, the chemical fixation by glutaraldehyde, paraformaldehyde, and OsO4 has been generally used for a long time. However, the chemical fixation method has some problems: the infiltration time is a little bit long and the ultrastructure of cell or tissue transforms before complete fixation of sample. So, recently, cryo-fixation is considered more often in biomedical field. In this study, we compared High Pressure Freezing (HPF) method with chemical fixation method using a algal sample (Ptilota filicina J. Agardh), which was difficult to fix using chemical fixation method. In chloroplast, the ultrastructure of thylakoid lamella and phycobilisome can not show clearly by chemical fixation. In this study we could observe the ultrastructure of thylakoid lamella and phycobilisome of chloroplast very clearly using HPF fixation. An improved images of ultrastructures of nucleus, mitochondrion and floridean starch could obtain. These results suggest that HPF method is very useful method in algal specimen for electron microscopy.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2020

This study utilized nano-liposomes for the purpose of stabilizing and increasing the solubility of biotin, a water-soluble active material with low solubility. The particle size, zeta potential, and polydispersity index were confirmed with a nano zetasizer. It was possible to manufacture nano liposomes at 100 to 250 nm of particle size and -80 to -30 mV of zeta potential. Dialysis membrane method (DMM) was used to measure the capsulation efficiency of biotin in biotin nano-liposomes, and results showed that pH increased biotin nano-liposomes had higher capsulation efficiency than normal biotin nano-liposome. Through this experiment, it was confirmed that the pH has a great influence on the stability of biotin nano-liposomes. In vitro franz diffusion cell method was used to measure in vitro skin absorption rate of biotin nano-liposomes. The shape of the formulation and biotin solubility in nano-liposome was observed by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). Through this study, we confirmed that biotin, which is introduced as closely related to hair health, can be incorporated into a nano-liposome drug delivery system, to make biotin nano-liposome with improved solubility and precipitation problems.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.8
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• pp.575-587
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• 2022

Human ABCB6 is an ATP-binding cassette transporter that regulates heme biosynthesis by translocating various porphyrins from the cytoplasm into the mitochondria. Here we report the cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of human ABCB6 with its substrates, coproporphyrin III (CPIII) and hemin, at 3.5 and 3.7 Å resolution, respectively. Metal-free porphyrin CPIII binds to ABCB6 within the central cavity, where its propionic acids form hydrogen bonds with the highly conserved Y550. The resulting structure has an overall fold similar to the inward-facing apo structure, but the two nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) are slightly closer to each other. In contrast, when ABCB6 binds a metal-centered porphyrin hemin in complex with two glutathione molecules (1 hemin: 2 glutathione), the two NBDs end up much closer together, aligning them to bind and hydrolyze ATP more efficiently. In our structures, a glycine-rich and highly flexible "bulge" loop on TM helix 7 undergoes significant conformational changes associated with substrate binding. Our findings suggest that ABCB6 utilizes at least two distinct mechanisms to fine-tune substrate specificity and transport efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.81-83
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• 2007

Cryogenic rolling combined with warm rolling has been found to be more effective than only cryogenic rolling procedure in improving the strength of a 5052 Al alloy. In this study, cryo-rolled 5052 Al alloys were aged at $175^{\circ}C$. Warm rolling was conducted after dipping plates into silicon oil bath. A notable increase of tensile strength is achieved by the precipitation during warm rolling. The mechanical behavior of this alloy was investigated by hardness and tensile tests. The microstructure was investigated by transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the cryogenic rolling combined with warm rolling was very effective in improving tensile strength.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.08a
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• pp.83-90
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• 1999

Electron crystallography of two-dimensional crystalsand electron cryo-microscopy is becoming an established method for determining the structure and function of a variety of membrane proteins that are providing difficult to crystallize in three dimension. In this study this technique has been used to investigate the structure of a ~160 kDa reaction centre sub-core complex of photosystem II. Photosystem II is a photosynthetic membrane protein consisting of more than 25 subunits. It uses solar energy to split water releasing molecular oxygen into the atmosphere and creates electrochemical potential across the thylakoid membrane, which is eventually utilized to generate ATP and NADPH. Images were taken using Philips CM200 field emission gun electron microscope with an acceleration voltage of 200kW at liquid nitrogen temperature. In total, 79 images recorded dat tilt angles ranging from 0 to 67 degree yielded amplitudes and phases for a three-dimensional map with an in-plant resolution of 6$\AA$ and 11.4$\AA$ in the third dimension shows at least 23 transmembrane helices resolved in a monomeric complex, of which 18 were able to be assigned to the D1, D2, CP47 , and cytochrome b559 alfa beta-subunits with their associated pigments that ae active in electron transport (Rhee, 1998, Ph.D.thesis). The D1/D2 heterodimer is located in the central position within the complex and its helical scalffold is remarkably similar to that of the reaction centres not only in purple bacteria but also in plant photosystem I (PSI) , indicating a common evoluationary origin of all types of reaction centre in photosynthetic organism known today 9RHee et al. 1998). The structural homology is now extended to the inner antenna subunit, ascribed to CP47 in our map, where the 6 transmembrane helices show a striking structural similarity to the corresponding helices of the PSI reaction centre proteins. The overall arrangement of the chlorophylls in the D1 /D2 heterodimer, and in particular the distance between the central pair, is ocnsistent with the weak exciton coupling of P680 that distinguishes this reaction centre from bacterial counterpart. The map in most progress towards high resolution structure will be presented and discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.1543-1551
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• 2023

The recently published high-resolution R388 T4SS structure provides exciting new details about the complete complex of T4SS, including the components making up the stalk and arches, numerous symmetry mismatches between regions of the complex, and an intriguing interpretation of the closed stalk and radial symmetry of the inner membrane complex, which is related to pilus biogenesis assembly. However, there are a few unidentified densities in the electron microscopy map and portions of the identified component sequences for which the structure is not yet known. It is also unclear how well this minimized DNA-transporting T4SS predicts the structure of other T4SSs, such as expanded systems and those that transport proteins rather than DNA. In this review, we evaluate what can be inferred from the recent high-resolution structure of the R388 T4SS with respect to the Cag and Dot/Icm systems. These systems were selected because, given what is currently known about these systems, we expect them to present most structural differences compared to the R388 T4SS structure. Furthermore, we discuss bacterial physiology and diversity, the T4SS structures and their variations between different bacterial species. These insights may prove beneficial for researchers who elucidate the structure and functions of T4SS in different bacterial species.