Cryo-EM of Helical Protein and Nucleoprotein Polymers at Near Atomic Resolution

摘要 我们的目标是在拟议期间大大扩展我们现有的研究， 由于改进的直接电子检测器， 更好的软件和更快的计算机。这些研究将包括皮利和鞭毛丝， 病原菌、交配皮利、III型和IV型分泌系统以及感染的古细菌病毒 生活在极端环境中的宿主此外，我们将继续研究小 分子和肽，自组装成管和丝，许多与预期的 生物医学应用我们对肌动蛋白的研究以及为什么这个序列如此高度保守 将继续通过研究许多不同的聚合物，我们希望开发出更通用的聚合物。 其他人可以将这些方法应用于生物学中的螺旋聚合物。由于大量这样的 聚合物存在，从细胞骨架丝到淀粉样蛋白到螺旋病毒（如埃博拉病毒） 这项工作的潜在意义是巨大的，可能会产生很大的影响。

Abstract We aim to greatly extend our existing studies in the proposed period, capitalizing on the great advances in electron cryo-microscopy that have been due to improved direct electron detectors, better software, and faster computers. The studies will include pili and flagellar filaments from pathogenic bacteria, mating pili, type III and IV secretion systems, and archaeal viruses infecting hosts living in the most extreme environments. In addition, we will continue studies of small molecules and peptides that self-assemble into tubes and filaments, many with anticipated biomedical applications. Our work on actin and why the sequence has been so highly conserved will continue. By working on many disparate polymers, we expect to develop more general methods that can be applied by others to helical polymers in biology. Since large numbers of such polymers exist, ranging from cytoskeletal filaments to amyloid to helical viruses (such as Ebola) the potential significance of this work is enormous and likely to have a great impact.