Electron tomography of degenerating neurons in mice with abnormal regulation of iron metabolism.

Previous studies have shown that IRP1(+/-) IRP2(-/-) knockout mice develop progressive neurodegenerative symptoms similar to those observed in human movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Histological investigations using optical microscopy show that these IRP knockout mice display accumulation of ferritin in axonal tracts in the brain, suggesting a possible role for excess ferritin in mediating axonal degeneration. Direct observation of the 3D distribution of ferritin by electron tomography indicates that ferritin amounts are increased by 3- to 4-fold in selected regions of the brain, and structural damage is observed within the axon as evidenced by the loss of the internal network of filaments, and the invaginations of neighboring oligodendrocyte membranes into the axonal medium. While optical microscopic investigations suggest that there is a large increase in ferritin in the presumptive axonal regions of the IRP knockout mice, electron tomographic studies reveal that most of the excess ferritin is localized to double-walled vesicular compartments which are present in the interior of the axon and appear to represent invaginations of the oligodendrocyte cells into the axon. The amount of ferritin observed in the axonal space of the knockout mice is at least 10-fold less than the amount of ferritin observed in wild-type mouse axons. The surprising conclusion from our analysis, therefore, is that despite the overall increase in ferritin levels in the knockout mouse brain, ferritin is absent from axons of degenerating neurons, suggesting that trafficking is compromised in early stages of this type of neuronal degeneration.

Three-dimensional electron microscopic imaging of membrane invaginations in Escherichia coli overproducing the chemotaxis receptor Tsr.

Electron tomography is a powerful method for determining the three-dimensional structures of large macromolecular assemblies, such as cells, organelles, and multiprotein complexes, when crystallographic averaging methods are not applicable. Here we used electron tomographic imaging to determine the molecular architecture of Escherichia coli cells engineered to overproduce the bacterial chemotaxis receptor Tsr. Tomograms constructed from fixed, cryosectioned cells revealed that overproduction of Tsr led to formation of an extended internal membrane network composed of stacks and extended tubular structures. We present an interpretation of the tomogram in terms of the packing arrangement of Tsr using constraints derived from previous X-ray and electron-crystallographic studies of receptor clusters. Our results imply that the interaction between the cytoplasmic ends of Tsr is likely to stabilize the presence of the membrane networks in cells overproducing Tsr. We propose that membrane invaginations that are potentially capable of supporting axial interactions between receptor clusters in apposing membranes could also be present in wild-type E. coli and that such receptor aggregates could play an important role in signal transduction during bacterial chemotaxis.