# Common lines ab-initio reconstruction of $D_2$-symmetric molecules

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel common lines algorithm specifically designed for ab-initio reconstruction of molecules with D2 symmetry in cryo-electron microscopy, leveraging all pairwise and within-image common lines.

## Contribution

The work presents the first common lines algorithm tailored for D2-symmetric molecules, extending existing methods from cyclic to dihedral symmetry.

## Key findings

- Successfully applied to experimental cryo-EM data
- Demonstrates accurate structure determination for D2-symmetric molecules
- Extends common lines methodology to new symmetry class

## Abstract

Cryo-electron microscopy is a state-of-the-art method for determining high-resolution three-dimensional models of molecules, from their two-dimensional projection images taken by an electron microscope. A crucial step in this method is to determine a low-resolution model of the molecule using only the given projection images, without using any three-dimensional information, such as an assumed reference model. For molecules without symmetry, this is often done by exploiting common lines between pairs of images. Common lines algorithms have been recently devised for molecules with cyclic symmetry, but no such algorithms exist for molecules with dihedral symmetry. In this work, we present a common lines algorithm for determining the structure of molecules with $D_{2}$ symmetry. The algorithm exploits the common lines between all pairs of images simultaneously, as well as common lines within each image. We demonstrate the applicability of our algorithm using experimental cryo-electron microscopy data.