2022Boehning CompressedSensing

Citation

Böhning, Jan / Bharat, Tanmay A. M. / Collins, Sean M. Compressed sensing for electron cryotomography and high-resolution subtomogram averaging of biological specimens. 2022-03. Structure, Vol. 30, p. 408-417.e4

Abstract

Cryoelectron tomography (cryo-ET) and subtomogram averaging (STA) allow direct visualization and structural studies of biological macromolecules in their native cellular environment, in situ. Often, low signal-to-noise ratios in tomograms, low particle abundance within the cell, and low throughput in typical cryo-ET workflows severely limit the obtainable structural information. To help mitigate these limitations, here we apply a compressed sensing approach using 3D second-order total variation (CS-TV ) to tomographic reconstruction. We show that CS-TV increases the signal-to-noise ratio in tomograms, enhancing direct visualization of macromolecules, while preserving high-resolution information up to the secondary structure level. We show that, particularly with small datasets, CS-TV allows improvement of the resolution of STA maps. We further demonstrate that the CS-TV algorithm is applicable to cellular specimens, leading to increased visibility of molecular detail within tomograms. This work highlights the potential of compressed sensing-based reconstruction algorithms for cryo-ET and in situ structural biology.

Links

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969212621004627