Abstract

The ability to analyze biological specimens in three dimensions represents one of the major achievements of modern structural biology. For all but the simplest repeating structures, three-dimensional analysis is a crucial prerequisite for understanding complex biological assemblies. Near atomic resolution analysis of of crystalline proteins, nucleic acids, and viruses by X-ray crystallography approaches the routine. The current frontier focuses on the three dimensional analysis of non-crystalline, non-symmetric biological structures of cellular dimension. Electron microscope tomography and three dimensional optical microscopy are perhaps the most powerful methods for these studies.

© 1986 Optical Society of America