Prescott's Microbiology 8th Edition by Joanne Willey, Linda Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton, Lansing Prescott, John Harley, Donald Klein

Exercise 6

How are freeze etching and electron cryotomography similar? How do they differ? What is the advantage of electron cryotomography?

Step 1 of 2

Freeze etching is a technique that produces high quality three-dimensional images that combines a procedure similar to Electron cryotomography.

The specimen is frozen with cold ethane, which causes vitreous ice to be formed. Vitreous ice is different from normal ice crystals as it does not break the sample. Instead it helps to stabilize the structure in a glasslike case. During freeze etching, rapid freezing results in the specimen fracturing and exposes the inside of the cell.

In cryotomography, the frozen specimen is then subjected to multiple scans at different directions. A computer program is used to combine these scans to form a three-dimensional image.