scholarly journals The three-dimensional structure of the nemaline rod Z-band.

1990 ◽  
Vol 111 (6) ◽  
pp. 2961-2978 ◽  
Author(s):  
E P Morris ◽  
G Nneji ◽  
J M Squire

In nemaline myopathy and some cardiac muscles, the Z-band becomes greatly enlarged and contains multiple layers of a zigzag structure similar to that seen in normal muscle. Because of the additional periodicity in the direction of the filament axis, these structures are particularly favorable for three-dimensional analysis since it becomes possible to average the data in all three dimensions and thus improve the reliability of the reconstruction. Individual views of the structure corresponding to tilted longitudinal and transverse sections were combined by matching the phases of common reflections. Examination of the tilted views strongly suggested that to the available resolution, the structure possesses fourfold screw symmetry along the actin filament axes. This symmetry could be used both in establishing the correct alignment for the combination of individual tilted views and to generate additional views not readily accessible in a single tilt series. The reconstruction shows actin filaments from one sarcomere surrounded by an array of four actin filaments with opposite polarity from the adjacent sacormere. The actin filaments show a right-handed twist and are connected by a structure that links adjacent filaments with the same polarity at the same axial level, then runs parallel to the filaments, and finally forms a link between two actin filaments whose polarity is opposite to that of the first pair. The connecting structure is probably composed of alpha-actinin which is located in Z-bands and cross-links actin filaments. The connecting structure may consist of two alpha-actinin molecules linking actin filaments of opposite polarity.

1989 ◽  
Vol 108 (5) ◽  
pp. 1761-1774 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Q Cheng ◽  
J F Deatherage

The three-dimensional structure of the central region of the Z disk of honeybee flight muscle has been determined to a resolution of 70 A by three-dimensional reconstruction from electron micrographs of tilted thin sections. The reconstructions show a complex assembly in which actin filaments terminate and are cross-linked together; a number of structural domains of this network are resolved in quantitative three-dimensional detail. The central region of the Z disk contains two sets of overlapping actin filaments of opposite polarity, which originate in the sarcomeres adjacent to the Z disk, and connections between these filaments. The filaments are deflected by the attachment of cross-links; spacing between filaments change by greater than 100 A during their passage through the Z disk. Each actin filament is linked by connecting structures to four filaments of opposite polarity and two filaments are of the same polarity. Four types of connecting density domain are observed in association with pairs of filaments of opposite polarity: C1, C2, C3, and C5. Two of these, C3 and C5, are associated with the ends of actin filaments. Another connection, C4, is associated with three filaments of the same polarity; C4 is threefold symmetric.


1989 ◽  
Vol 108 (5) ◽  
pp. 1775-1782 ◽  
Author(s):  
J F Deatherage ◽  
N Q Cheng ◽  
B Bullard

Information from oblique thin sections and from three-dimensional reconstructions of tilted, transverse thin sections (Cheng, N., and J. F. Deatherage. 1989. J. Cell Biol. 108:1761-1774) has been combined to determine the three-dimensional structure of the honeybee flight muscle Z disk at 70-A resolution. The overall symmetry and structure of the Z disk and its relationship to the rest of the myofibril have been determined by tracing filaments and connecting elements on electron images of oblique sections which have been enhanced by a local crystallographic averaging technique. In the three-dimensional structure, the connecting density between actin filaments can be described as five compact, crystallographically nonequivalent domains. Features C1 and C2 are located on the transverse twofold rotation axes in the central plane of the Z disk. They are associated with the sides of actin filaments of opposite polarity. Features C3, C4, and C5 are present in two symmetry-related sets which are located on opposite sides of the central plane. C3 and C5 are each associated with two filaments of opposite polarity, interacting with the side of one filament and the end of the other filament. C3 and C5 may be involved in stabilizing actin filament ends inside the Z disk. The location of the threefold symmetric connection C4, relative to the thick filament of the adjacent sarcomere, is determined and its possible relationship to the C filament is considered.


Author(s):  
T.D. Pollard ◽  
P. Maupin

In this paper we review some of the contributions that electron microscopy has made to the analysis of actin and myosin from nonmuscle cells. We place particular emphasis upon the limitations of the ultrastructural techniques used to study these cytoplasmic contractile proteins, because it is not widely recognized how difficult it is to preserve these elements of the cytoplasmic matrix for electron microscopy. The structure of actin filaments is well preserved for electron microscope observation by negative staining with uranyl acetate (Figure 1). In fact, to a resolution of about 3nm the three-dimensional structure of actin filaments determined by computer image processing of electron micrographs of negatively stained specimens (Moore et al., 1970) is indistinguishable from the structure revealed by X-ray diffraction of living muscle.


1994 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
A McGough ◽  
M Way ◽  
D DeRosier

The three-dimensional structure of actin filaments decorated with the actin-binding domain of chick smooth muscle alpha-actinin (alpha A1-2) has been determined to 21-A resolution. The shape and location of alpha A1-2 was determined by subtracting maps of F-actin from the reconstruction of decorated filaments. alpha A1-2 resembles a bell that measures approximately 38 A at its base and extends 42 A from its base to its tip. In decorated filaments, the base of alpha A1-2 is centered about the outer face of subdomain 2 of actin and contacts subdomain 1 of two neighboring monomers along the long-pitch (two-start) helical strands. Using the atomic model of F-actin (Lorenz, M., D. Popp, and K. C. Holmes. 1993. J. Mol. Biol. 234:826-836.), we have been able to test directly the likelihood that specific actin residues, which have been previously identified by others, interact with alpha A1-2. Our results indicate that residues 86-117 and 350-375 comprise distinct binding sites for alpha-actinin on adjacent actin monomers.


1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (S2) ◽  
pp. 32-33
Author(s):  
M. F. Schmid ◽  
P. Matsudaira ◽  
M. T. Dougherty ◽  
M. B. Sherman ◽  
C. Henn ◽  
...  

Collaboration between local microscopists and image processing specialists, and their remote biological colleagues, has been hampered by the difficulty of i) transferring the three-dimensional reconstructions of macromolecules resulting from the cryomicroscopy and image processing, ii) viewing the results in a meaningful way, and iii) communicating the results and the interpretations derived therefrom to each other.The acrosomal process is an intracellular quasi-crystalline organelle in the head of the sperm of the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus. It consists of 100 - 130 actin-scruin filaments packed together in a pseudo-hexagonal lattice and is up to 60 μm long with a diameter of 0.1 μm. Scruin-scruin interactions are responsible for cross-linking the actin filaments together in the bundle. Our goal was to reveal interfilament interactions in the bundle. We have taken tilt series images in the electron microscope to reconstruct its three-dimensional structure at 45 Å resolution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 198 ◽  
pp. 01050
Author(s):  
Yong-Chen ◽  
Zhong Hua-Cheng ◽  
Qi-Xu

Draw lessons from the basic idea of system science methodology, based on the hall three dimensions structure theory construction of research personnel training problems, from the time dimension, logic knowledge and three dimension analysis of all aspects of talent cultivation system, clear the talent training theory support, and solve the problem of a series of contradictions in the process of talent training, further enriched and developed the theoretical system of talents cultivation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 526-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Allen ◽  
Jochen Wittge ◽  
Jennifer Stopford ◽  
Andreas Danilewsky ◽  
Patrick McNally

In the semiconductor industry, wafer handling introduces micro-cracks at the wafer edge and the causal relationship of these cracks to wafer breakage is a difficult task. By way of understanding the wafer breakage process, a series of nano-indents were introduced both into 20 × 20 mm (100) wafer pieces and into whole wafers as a means of introducing controlled strain. Visualization of the three-dimensional structure of crystal defects has been demonstrated. The silicon samples were then treated by various thermal anneal processes to initiate the formation of dislocation loops around the indents. This article reports the three-dimensional X-ray diffraction imaging and visualization of the structure of these dislocations. A series of X-ray section topographs of both the indents and the dislocation loops were taken at the ANKA Synchrotron, Karlsruhe, Germany. The topographs were recorded on a CCD system combined with a high-resolution scintillator crystal and were measured by repeated cycles of exposure and sample translation along a direction perpendicular to the beam. The resulting images were then rendered into three dimensions utilizing open-source three-dimensional medical tomography algorithms that show the dislocation loops formed. Furthermore this technique allows for the production of a video (avi) file showing the rotation of the rendered topographs around any defined axis. The software also has the capability of splitting the image along a segmentation line and viewing the internal structure of the strain fields.


Author(s):  
David Blow

In Chapter 4 many two-dimensional examples were shown, in which a diffraction pattern represents the Fourier transform of the scattering object. When a diffracting object is three-dimensional, a new effect arises. In diffraction by a repetitive object, rays are scattered in many directions. Each unit of the lattice scatters, but a diffracted beam arises only if the scattered rays from each unit are all in phase. Otherwise the scattering from one unit is cancelled out by another. In two dimensions, there is always a direction where the scattered rays are in phase for any order of diffraction (just as shown for a one-dimensional scatterer in Fig. 4.1). In three dimensions, it is only possible for all the points of a lattice to scatter in phase if the crystal is correctly oriented in the incident beam. The amplitudes and phases of all the scattered beams from a three-dimensional crystal still provide the Fourier transform of the three-dimensional structure. But when a crystal is at a particular angular orientation to the X-ray beam, the scattering of a monochromatic beam provides only a tiny sample of the total Fourier transform of its structure. In the next section, we are going to find what is needed to allow a diffracted beam to be generated. We shall follow a treatment invented by Lawrence Bragg in 1913. Max von Laue, who discovered X-ray diffraction in 1912, used a different scheme of analysis; and Paul Ewald introduced a new way of looking at it in 1921. These three methods are referred to as the Laue equations, Bragg’s law and the Ewald construction, and they give identical results. All three are described in many crystallographic text books. Bragg’s method is straightforward, understandable, and suffices for present needs. I had heard J.J. Thomson lecture about…X-rays as very short pulses of radiation. I worked out that such pulses…should be reflected at any angle of incidence by the sheets of atoms in the crystal as if these sheets were mirrors.…It remained to explain why certain of the atomic mirrors in the zinc blende [ZnS] crystal reflected more powerfully than others.


1983 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 1400-1413 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Niederman ◽  
P C Amrein ◽  
J Hartwig

Purified muscle actin and mixtures of actin and actin-binding protein were examined in the transmission electron microscope after fixation, critical point drying, and rotary shadowing. The three-dimensional structure of the protein assemblies was analyzed by a computer-assisted graphic analysis applicable to generalized filament networks. This analysis yielded information concerning the frequency of filament intersections, the filament length between these intersections, the angle at which filaments branch at these intersections, and the concentration of filaments within a defined volume. Purified actin at a concentration of 1 mg/ml assembled into a uniform mass of long filaments which overlap at random angles between 0 degrees and 90 degrees. Actin in the presence of macrophage actin-binding protein assembled into short, straight filaments, organized in a perpendicular branching network. The distance between branch points was inversely related to the molar ratio of actin-binding protein to actin. This distance was what would be predicted if actin filaments grew at right angles off of nucleation sites on the two ends of actin-binding protein dimers, and then annealed. The results suggest that actin in combination with actin-binding protein self-assembles to form a three-dimensional network resembling the peripheral cytoskeleton of motile cells.


SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401989882
Author(s):  
Blaine Marcano ◽  
Gloria Castaño-Collado

The measure created by H. Li offers a useful tool for investigating justice perceptions among team members or peer justice climate; however, more research is required to confirm its structure in lieu of competing models. This study provides evidence for the three-dimensional structure of peer justice climate within a multiethnic context and explores its relation to outcome variable performance. Participants were 304 undergraduate students from universities in the multiethnic, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Competing structures of peer justice climate were compared using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated that peer justice climate is best conceptualized as having three dimensions (distributive, procedural, interactional) with an overarching justice factor connecting them. Suggestions are made for improving the measure. Procedural peer justice climate was found to have a significant positive relation with team performance.


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