Cryo-electron microscopy structural information from

Apart from (bio-)chemical data, direct structural information of vesicles and micelles can be obtained by cryo-electron microscopy. Cryo-electron microscopy as introduced by Jaques Dubochet, has now become a standard technique to gain artifact-free structural information within the natural solvent. In most cases water is used but also other solvents like polar organic solvents and apolar solvents can be employed. Thin layers of solvent with colloidal suspended material can be vitrified by rapid cooling in Uquid ethane. By remaining at low temperature inside an electron nticroscope the solvent will not evaporate in the high vacuum. This allows to gain high resolution structural information. 

Figure 10 Components of the nuclear pore complex. Structures are available from the PDB and EMDB for some of the components of the nuclear core complex. The individual proteins and small subassemblies shown in ribbon representation are from six PDB entries that provide atomic-level information from X-ray (4GQ2, 3UKY, 4FHN, 3TKN, 4GQ1) or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (2EC1) studies. The three larger subassemblies drawn as surfaces have been analyzed by cryo-electron microscopy (EMD-5152, EMD-1097) or cryo-electron tomography (EMD-1394).

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