An open-access volume electron microscopy atlas of whole cells and tissues

C. Shan Xu (), Song Pang, Gleb Shtengel, Andreas Müller, Alex T. Ritter, Huxley K. Hoffman, Shin-ya Takemura, Zhiyuan Lu, H. Amalia Pasolli, Nirmala Iyer, Jeeyun Chung, Davis Bennett, Aubrey V. Weigel, Melanie Freeman, Schuyler B. Engelenburg, Tobias C. Walther, Robert V. Farese, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Ira Mellman, Michele Solimena and Harald F. Hess ()
Additional contact information
C. Shan Xu: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Song Pang: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Gleb Shtengel: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Andreas Müller: University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, TU Dresden
Alex T. Ritter: Genentech
Huxley K. Hoffman: University of Denver
Shin-ya Takemura: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Zhiyuan Lu: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
H. Amalia Pasolli: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Nirmala Iyer: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Jeeyun Chung: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Davis Bennett: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Aubrey V. Weigel: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Melanie Freeman: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Schuyler B. Engelenburg: University of Denver
Tobias C. Walther: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Robert V. Farese: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ira Mellman: Genentech
Michele Solimena: University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, TU Dresden
Harald F. Hess: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Nature, 2021, vol. 599, issue 7883, 147-151

Abstract: Abstract Understanding cellular architecture is essential for understanding biology. Electron microscopy (EM) uniquely visualizes cellular structures with nanometre resolution. However, traditional methods, such as thin-section EM or EM tomography, have limitations in that they visualize only a single slice or a relatively small volume of the cell, respectively. Focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) has demonstrated the ability to image small volumes of cellular samples with 4-nm isotropic voxels1. Owing to advances in the precision and stability of FIB milling, together with enhanced signal detection and faster SEM scanning, we have increased the volume that can be imaged with 4-nm voxels by two orders of magnitude. Here we present a volume EM atlas at such resolution comprising ten three-dimensional datasets for whole cells and tissues, including cancer cells, immune cells, mouse pancreatic islets and Drosophila neural tissues. These open access data (via OpenOrganelle2) represent the foundation of a field of high-resolution whole-cell volume EM and subsequent analyses, and we invite researchers to explore this atlas and pose questions.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03992-4

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