Web server for tilt-pair validation of single particle maps from electron cryomicroscopy

Three-dimensional structures of biological assemblies may be calculated from images of single particles obtained by electron cryomicroscopy. A key step is the correct determination of the orientation of the particle in individual image projections. A useful tool for validation of the quality of a 3D map and its consistency with images is tilt-pair analysis. In a successful tilt-pair test, the relative angle between orientations assigned to each image of a tilt-pair agrees with the known relative rotation angle of the microscope specimen holder during the experiment. To make the procedure easy to apply to the increasing number of single particle maps, we have developed software and a web server for tilt-pair analysis. The tilt-pair analysis program reports the overall agreement of the assigned orientations with the known tilt angle and axis of the experiment and the distribution of tilt transformations for individual particles recorded in a single image field. We illustrate application of the validation tool to several single particle specimens and describe how to interpret the scores.