CTF Challenge: Result summary

Roberto Marabini; Bridget Carragher; Shaoxia Chen; James Chen; Anchi Cheng; Kenneth H Downing; Joachim Frank; Robert A Grassucci; J Bernard Heymann; Wen Jiang; Slavica Jonic; Hstau Y Liao; Steven J Ludtke; Shail Patwari; Angela L Piotrowski; Adrian Quintana; Carlos O S Sorzano; Henning Stahlberg; Javier Vargas; Neil R Voss; Wah Chiu; Jose M Carazo

doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2015.04.003

CTF Challenge: Result summary

J Struct Biol. 2015 Jun;190(3):348-59. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2015.04.003. Epub 2015 Apr 23.

Authors

Roberto Marabini¹, Bridget Carragher², Shaoxia Chen³, James Chen⁴, Anchi Cheng², Kenneth H Downing⁵, Joachim Frank⁶, Robert A Grassucci⁶, J Bernard Heymann⁷, Wen Jiang⁸, Slavica Jonic⁹, Hstau Y Liao⁶, Steven J Ludtke¹⁰, Shail Patwari¹¹, Angela L Piotrowski¹¹, Adrian Quintana¹², Carlos O S Sorzano¹², Henning Stahlberg¹³, Javier Vargas¹², Neil R Voss¹¹, Wah Chiu¹⁰, Jose M Carazo¹²

Affiliations

¹ Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: roberto@cnb.csic.es.
² The National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
³ MRC-LMB, Cambridge CB2 0QH, United Kingdom.
⁴ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
⁵ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁶ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, NY 10032, USA.
⁷ Laboratory of Structural Biology Research, National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
⁸ Purdue University, Biological Sciences, IN 47907-2054, USA.
⁹ IMPMC, Sorbonne Universités - CNRS UMR 7590, UPMC Univ Paris 6, MNHN, IRD UMR 206, 75005 Paris, France.
¹⁰ Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
¹¹ Roosevelt University, Department of Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, 1400 N. Roosevelt Blvd., Schaumburg, IL 60173, USA.
¹² Biocomputing Unit, National Center for Biotechnology (CSIC), C/Darwin, 3, Campus Universidad Autónoma, 28049 Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain.
¹³ Biozentrum, University of Basel, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland.

Abstract

Image formation in bright field electron microscopy can be described with the help of the contrast transfer function (CTF). In this work the authors describe the "CTF Estimation Challenge", called by the Madrid Instruct Image Processing Center (I2PC) in collaboration with the National Center for Macromolecular Imaging (NCMI) at Houston. Correcting for the effects of the CTF requires accurate knowledge of the CTF parameters, but these have often been difficult to determine. In this challenge, researchers have had the opportunity to test their ability in estimating some of the key parameters of the electron microscope CTF on a large micrograph data set produced by well-known laboratories on a wide set of experimental conditions. This work presents the first analysis of the results of the CTF Estimation Challenge, including an assessment of the performance of the different software packages under different conditions, so as to identify those areas of research where further developments would be desirable in order to achieve high-resolution structural information.

Keywords: Benchmarking; Challenge; Contrast transfer function; Electron microscopy; High-resolution.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
Macromolecular Substances / chemistry*
Microscopy, Electron / methods*
Software

Substances

Macromolecular Substances

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding