Procedures for three-dimensional reconstruction of spherical viruses by Fourier synthesis from electron micrographs

An account is given of a method which has been developed for computing three-dimensional density maps from transmission electron micrographs using Fourier transforms. The reconstructions objectively combine data from several different views of one or more particles. The application to negatively stained tomato bushy stunt virus is described in detail and the resulting reconstruction presented. Projections of the reconstruction in the appropriate directions agree well with images of the virus taken from micrographs.