Fig. 3: Investigation of PLY and PB-2 using Cryo-TEM.

a Cryo-electron tomography of liposomes treated with PLY: The right image shows a section of a central stack of 20 accumulated slices from the reconstructed 3D volume (left, as voltex presentation), one example of PLY-induced pre-pore and pore formation event³⁸ is highlighted by a red circle. For a video representation see Supplementary Video 1. b Cryo-electron tomography of PLY-pores: Top: Reconstructed 3D volume of solubilized liposomes. Bottom: Central accumulated stack of 20 slices from the 3D volume showing protein pores formed by oligomerization of PLY monomers isolated by treatment of PLY-liposome mixture with Cymal-6 followed by Amphipol-35¹². For a video representation see Supplementary Video 2. c Cryo-electron tomography of liposomes in the presence of PLY and inhibitor (PB-2): A central stack of 20 accumulated slices (position corresponds to the blue frame in the 3D volume on the left) shows smooth vesicle membranes (top image and enlarged detail). A near-surface stack of 20 accumulated slices (position corresponds to the green frame in the same 3D on the left) shows suspended PLY particles not integrated in liposomal membranes (highlighted by red arrows in the bottom image and enlarged detail). For a video representation see Supplementary Video 3 (data shown in (a–c) are one of n = 3 and scale bars correspond to 100 nm).