| Research Abstract |
Our goal is to understand the molecular mechanism of motor proteins on the basis of atomic structure of proteins.
First, we inproved an electron microscope with a cold field emission gun. Especially, we developed a new objective lenz, by which we can observe high-tilted images, an anti-contaminator, a new minimum dose system.
Second, we developed new image analysis techniques. The first one is electron tomography to reconstruct three-dimensional images of cross-bridge in contracting muscle.The second one is visualization of single motor protein using a holographic image reconstruction technique. The third one is three-dimensional reconstruction without using helical symmetry in order to reconstruct three-dimensional structure of thin filaments. The forth one is a new three-dimensional structure using helical symmetry.
Third, by electron cryo-microscopy, we analyzed three-dimensional structure of kinesin-tubulin complexes, thin filaments, native thin filaments, actomyosin complexes, and actin filaments.
Last, we identified the position of the myosin N-terminus in the actin-myosin rigor complexes using protein engineering and cryo-electron microscopy.
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