High Voltage Electron Microscopy of Viral Inclusion Bodies

Author(s):  
H.M. Mazzone ◽  
W.F. Engler ◽  
G. Wray ◽  
A. Szirmae ◽  
J. Conroy ◽  
...  

Viral inclusion bodies isolated from infected pest insects are being evaluated by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture as biological insecticides against their hosts. Our research on these inclusion bodies constitutes part of an effort to support their approval by the Environmental Protection Agency as insect control agents. The inclusion bodies in this study are polyhedral in shape and contain rod-shaped viral particles. When ingested by pest insects, the inclusion bodies are broken down in the insect gut and release the viral particles which infect and multiply in the nuclei of host cells. These viruses are termed nucleopolyhedrosis viruses (NPV) and are representatives of the baculoviruses (Wildy, P. 1971 IN J.L. Melnick, ed., Monographs in Virology, vol. 5, S.Karger, New York).

1983 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 713-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
S A Nierzwicki-Bauer ◽  
D L Balkwill ◽  
S E Stevens

The first complete three-dimensional ultrastructural reconstruction of a cyanobacterium was accomplished with high-voltage electron microscopy and computer-aided assembly of serial sections. The precise arrangement of subcellular features within the cell body was very consistent from one cell to another. Specialized inclusion bodies always occupied specific intracellular locations. The photosynthetic thylakoid membranes entirely surrounded the central portion of the cytoplasm, thereby compartmentalizing it from the rest of the cell. The thylakoid membranes formed an interconnecting network of concentric shells, merging only at the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane. The thylakoids were in contact with the cytoplasmic membrane at several locations, apparently to maintain the overall configuration of the thylakoid system. These results clarified several unresolved issues regarding structure-function relationships in cyanobacteria.


Author(s):  
M. J. Song ◽  
J. Pudney

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), the causative agent of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is a retrovirus. HIV-1 infects host cells by fusing with the plasma membrane and injecting viral RNA into the cytoplasm. Viral RNA induces the synthesis of viral DNA that is integrated into the host genome. Viral progeny are secreted by budding from the plasma membrane. Only two periods in the life cycle of the virus are amenable for examining morphological interactions between HIV-1 and host cells: during infection, before the virus disassembles prior to viral DNA production, and morphogenesis of HIV-1, as structural components are assembled at the host plasma membrane. Although these periods are critical for the success of HIV-1 they have not been widely investigated at the electron-microscope level. To address this we have used high-voltage electron microscopy (HVEM) to analyze the spatial and morphological associations between HIV-1 and host cells during infection and morphogenesis.


Author(s):  
H.M. Mazzone ◽  
G. Wray

The High-Voltage Electron Microscope (HVEM) affords the researcher an opportunity to study insect virus inclusion bodies, intact, without resorting to physical thin-sectioning or chemical degradation procedures. In this manner polyhedral inclusion bodies, isolated from insects infected with nuclopolyhedrosis viruses (NPVs) were observed with the HVEM, and the numerous viruses lying internally, clearly delineated.In the present report we used the HVEM to study, in whole mount, another type of insect virus inclusion body, that from the capsule (granulosis) viruses of two hosts, the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea (Drury) and the yellow wollybear, Diacrisia virginica (Fabricius). The insect capsule viruses, like the NPVs, are characterized by a crystalline protein matrix which occludes enveloped, rod-shaped virus particles. Whereas the inclusion bodies of NPVs contain a number of virus particles in each inclusion body, those of the capsule viruses contain, generally, only one virus particle in each capsule or granule.


Author(s):  
L. D. Ackerman ◽  
S. H. Y. Wei

Mature human dental enamel has presented investigators with several difficulties in ultramicrotomy of specimens for electron microscopy due to its high degree of mineralization. This study explores the possibility of combining ion-milling and high voltage electron microscopy as a means of circumventing the problems of ultramicrotomy.A longitudinal section of an extracted human third molar was ground to a thickness of about 30 um and polarized light micrographs were taken. The specimen was attached to a single hole grid and thinned by argon-ion bombardment at 15° incidence while rotating at 15 rpm. The beam current in each of two guns was 50 μA with an accelerating voltage of 4 kV. A 20 nm carbon coating was evaporated onto the specimen to prevent an electron charge from building up during electron microscopy.


Author(s):  
R. H. Geiss ◽  
R. L. Ladd ◽  
K. R. Lawless

Detailed electron microscope and diffraction studies of the sub-oxides of vanadium have been reported by Cambini and co-workers, and an oxidation study, possibly complicated by carbon and/or nitrogen, has been published by Edington and Smallman. The results reported by these different authors are not in good agreement. For this study, high purity polycrystalline vanadium samples were electrochemically thinned in a dual jet polisher using a solution of 20% H2SO4, 80% CH3OH, and then oxidized in an ion-pumped ultra-high vacuum reactor system using spectroscopically pure oxygen. Samples were oxidized at 350°C and 100μ oxygen pressure for periods of 30,60,90 and 160 minutes. Since our primary interest is in the mechanism of the low pressure oxidation process, the oxidized samples were cooled rapidly and not homogenized. The specimens were then examined in the HVEM at voltages up to 500 kV, the higher voltages being necessary to examine thick sections for which the oxidation behavior was more characteristic of the bulk.


Author(s):  
Lee D. Peachey ◽  
Clara Franzini-Armstrong

The effective study of biological tissues in thick slices of embedded material by high voltage electron microscopy (HVEM) requires highly selective staining of those structures to be visualized so that they are not hidden or obscured by other structures in the image. A tilt pair of micrographs with subsequent stereoscopic viewing can be an important aid in three-dimensional visualization of these images, once an appropriate stain has been found. The peroxidase reaction has been used for this purpose in visualizing the T-system (transverse tubular system) of frog skeletal muscle by HVEM (1). We have found infiltration with lanthanum hydroxide to be particularly useful for three-dimensional visualization of certain aspects of the structure of the T- system in skeletal muscles of the frog. Specifically, lanthanum more completely fills the lumen of the tubules and is denser than the peroxidase reaction product.


Author(s):  
T. Mukai ◽  
T. E. Mitchell

Radiation-induced homogeneous precipitation in Ni-Be alloys was recently observed by high voltage electron microscopy. A coupling of interstitial flux with solute Be atoms is responsible for the precipitation. The present investigation further shows that precipitation is also induced at thin foil surfaces by electron irradiation under a high vacuum.


Author(s):  
Hans Ris

The High Voltage Electron Microscope Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin has been in operation a little over one year. I would like to give a progress report about our experience with this new technique. The achievement of good resolution with thick specimens has been mainly exploited so far. A cold stage which will allow us to look at frozen specimens and a hydration stage are now being installed in our microscope. This will soon make it possible to study undehydrated specimens, a particularly exciting application of the high voltage microscope.Some of the problems studied at the Madison facility are: Structure of kinetoplast and flagella in trypanosomes (J. Paulin, U. of Georgia); growth cones of nerve fibers (R. Hannah, U. of Georgia Medical School); spiny dendrites in cerebellum of mouse (Scott and Guillery, Anatomy, U. of Wis.); spindle of baker's yeast (Joan Peterson, Madison) spindle of Haemanthus (A. Bajer, U. of Oregon, Eugene) chromosome structure (Hans Ris, U. of Wisconsin, Madison). Dr. Paulin and Dr. Hanna are reporting their work separately at this meeting and I shall therefore not discuss it here.


Author(s):  
Regina Birchem

Spheroids of the green colonial alga Volvox consist of biflagellate Chlamydomonad-like cells embedded in a transparent sheath. The sheath, important as a substance through which metabolic materials, light, and the sexual inducer must pass to and from the cells, has been shown to have an ordered structure (1,2). It is composed of both protein and carbohydrate (3); studies of V. rousseletii indicate an outside layer of sulfated polysaccharides (4).Ultrastructural studies of the sheath material in developmental stages of V. carteri f. weismannia were undertaken employing variations in the standard fixation procedure, ruthenium red, diaminobenzidine, and high voltage electron microscopy. Sheath formation begins after the completion of cell division and inversion of the daughter spheroids. Golgi, rough ER, and plasma membrane are actively involved in phases of sheath synthesis (Fig. 1). Six layers of ultrastructurally differentiated sheath material have been identified.


Author(s):  
N.J. Tighe ◽  
H.M. Flower ◽  
P.R. Swann

A differentially pumped environmental cell has been developed for use in the AEI EM7 million volt microscope. In the initial version the column of gas traversed by the beam was 5.5mm. This permited inclusion of a tilting hot stage in the cell for investigating high temperature gas-specimen reactions. In order to examine specimens in the wet state it was found that a pressure of approximately 400 torr of water saturated helium was needed around the specimen to prevent dehydration. Inelastic scattering by the water resulted in a sharp loss of image quality. Therefore a modified cell with an ‘airgap’ of only 1.5mm has been constructed. The shorter electron path through the gas permits examination of specimens at the necessary pressure of moist helium; the specimen can still be tilted about the side entry rod axis by ±7°C to obtain stereopairs.


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