Efficient manual annotation of cryogenic electron tomograms using IMOD

Abstract

Summary: Annotation highlights and segmentation isolates features in cryogenic electron tomograms to improve visualization and quantification of features (for example, their size and abundance, and spatial relationships with other features), facilitating phenotypic structural analyses of cellular tomograms. Here, we present a manual annotation protocol using the open-source software IMOD and describe segmentation of three types of common cellular features: membranes, large globules, and filaments. IMOD’s interpolation function can improve the speed of manual annotation up to an order of magnitude. : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

Keywords

• Cell biology
• Cell membrane
• Structural biology
• Cryo-EM
• Evolutionary biology