Architecture and Assembly of Chemoreceptor Arrays as seen by Electron Cryotomography

Most motile bacteria as well as many archaea sense and respond to their environment through arrays of chemoreceptors. While X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy and other high-resolution structural methods have produced atomic models of components and sub-complexes of these arrays, we have used electron cryotomography to visualize their basic architecture in their native state within intact cells and reconstituted in vitro systems to ∼2 nm resolution, revealing principles of array structure and assembly.