Forum 05/06/2004

“Electron Microcopy and Image Processing Structure Analysis of Complex I from Yarrowia lipolytica”

Jinghua Tang – Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Univ. of CA San Diego

Recent developments in the techniques for image processing of single particles have led to improvements of the resolution of three-dimensional reconstructions, especially in the case of elongated molecules. This talk will focus primarily on the application of simultaneous translational/rotational alignment methods in two and three dimensions. A specific application will be shown, where these techniques have resulted in a high resolution structure. In the second half of the presentation I will show current results of our structural analysis of complex I. We have determined a first three-dimensional reconstruction and localized several subunits in this complex. The unexpected location of these subunits has major implication for a functional model of this largest complex in the mitochondrial respiratory chain