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Intact Carboxysomes in a Cyanobacterial Cell Visualized by Hilbert Differential Contrast Transmission Electron Microscopy

Department of Regulation Biology, Saitama University, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan,¹ Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Myodaiji-cho, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan,² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saitama University, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan³

Received 23 June 2005/ Accepted 27 October 2005

Carboxysomes in rapidly frozen ice-embedded whole cells of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7942 were visualized by the recently developed Hilbert differential contrast transmission electron microscope. Structural details of carboxysomes were especially clearly visualized in the ruptured cells. The novel electron microscopy exhibited the paracrystalline arrays of molecules of the enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase in the carboxysomes in much better contrast than conventional transmission electron microscopy with ultrathin sections of cells. The carboxysome was surrounded by a 5- to 6-nm-thick monolayer shell which consisted of orderly arrays of globular particles.