LAUSR

Single-particle cryoTEM techniques have revolutionized the field of structural biology because they can now provide 3-dimesional (3d) images of proteins and biological complexes at near atomic-resolutions [1]. Arguably speaking, this unprecedented progress is made possible only after the replacement of charged-coupled devices (CCD) cameras with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cameras [2]. CMOS cameras for TEMs are more attractive because they intrinsically possess higher speed for recording the images than their CCD counterparts. Second, they are available in both indirect-electron (with-Scintillator) and direct-electron (without-Scintillator) configurations for the detection of electrons. Direct-electron cameras are indeed superior to indirect cameras because the former possess close-to-ideal optical parameters i.e. quantum detective efficiency (QDE) and modular transfer function (MTF). Hence they are also suitable for recording cryoTEM images even under ultra-low electron dose (≤1 e-/Ǻ2) conditions. It is, however, desirable to determine a performance-based comparison for these cameras and that is why it was the objective of work presented in this report.