Introduction To Physical Techniques for Determination of Structure of Biopolymers

Biopolymers perform important cellular processes, which are isolated, purified and studied with the help of a wide range of biophysical, electrochemical and molecular biology techniques such as NMR, X-ray Crystallography, Electron Microscopy, and Electron Tomography. X-ray Crystallography helps us to establish 3D structures of small and large molecules at atomic resolution via the X-ray diffraction method, whereas NMR determines the content and purity of a sample. Electron microscopy obtains high-resolution images of biological and non-biological specimens and electron tomography provides three-dimensional density maps of the pleomorphic organism from macromolecular complexes to cells.

All these techniques, discussed in this unit, provide us a greater insight to unravel the mystery of complex organisms and to understand the structure and functional properties of the biomolecules.

Keywords: Fourier transform, Macromolecules, Mosaicity, Pleomorphism, Synchrotons.