Cryoelectron Microscopy as a Functional Instrument for Systems Biology, Structural Analysis & Experimental Manipulations with Living Cells. A comprehensive review of the current works

TL;DR

This comprehensive review explores cryoelectron microscopy's role in systems biology, emphasizing its potential for observation, modification, and functional analysis of biological structures, and introduces concepts like localomics and dynamomics.

Contribution

It provides an up-to-date conceptual framework for cryoelectron microscopy in systems biology and introduces novel ideas like 'system cryobiology' and 'cryogenic biomimetics.'

Findings

Cryoelectron microscopy can be used for structural modification of biological samples.

The paper highlights the potential of cryo-EM in data mining and computational analysis.

Recent works support cryo-EM's expanding role in functional systems biology.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give an introductory review of the cryoelectron microscopy as a complex data source for the most of the system biology branches, including the most perspective non-local approaches known as "localomics" and "dynamomics". A brief summary of various cryoelectron mi-croscopy methods and corresponding system biological ap-proaches is given in the text. The above classification can be considered as a useful framework for the primary comprehen-sions about cryoelectron microscopy aims and instrumental tools. We do not discuss any of these concepts in details, but merely point out that their methodological complexity follows only from the structure-functional complexity of biological systems which are investigated in this manner. We also postu-late that one can employ some of the cryoelectron microscopic techniques not only for observation, but also for modification and structural refunctionalization of some biological and similar soft matter objects and microscopic samples. In other worlds, we start with the cryoelectron microscopy as a tool for the sys-tem biology and progress to its applying as an instrument for system biology and functional biomimetics; i.e. "system cryobi-ology" goes over into "synthetic cryobiology" or "cryogenic biomimetics". All these conclusions can be deduced from the most recent works of the latest years, including just submitted foreign papers. This article provides an up-to-date description of the conceptual basis for the novel view on the computational cryoelectron microscopy (in silico) approaches and the data mining principles which lie at the very foundation of modern structural analysis and reconstruction.