Researchers using the Cryo-EM Unit's tomography capabilities have published a landmark study revealing the three-dimensional cytoskeletal architecture inside intact Myxococcus xanthus bacterial cells. The work, published in eLife, used cryo-focused ion beam (cryo-FIB) milling combined with cryo-ET to visualize actin-like MreB filaments in their native cellular environment.

Sub-tomogram averaging of over 2,000 MreB filament segments yielded a resolution of approximately 8 Å, allowing the team to identify previously unknown lateral interactions between filaments that likely contribute to cell shape determination during biofilm formation.

This study represents the first cryo-ET dataset acquired entirely at the BGU facility and demonstrates the unit's growing capabilities in whole-cell structural biology. The full tomographic dataset has been deposited in the EMDB and is publicly available for the community.