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Bacteriophage T4 and tobacco mosaic virus were imaged by scanning tunneling microscopy after metal coating of the specimens and by atomic force microscopy without coating, and their topographies were examined. A metal coating approximately 5 nm in thickness assured easy and reproducible imaging of samples but obscured their detailed structural features. AFM gave a better resolution on this scale, revealing the presence of tail fibers 2 nm in diameter of T4 phage, which is the best resolution so far reported for isolated biological structures. Sample topographies were in good agreement with the results of previous electron microscopic analysis.
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Imai et al. (1993) studied this question.
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