MBIR: A cryo-ET 3D reconstruction method that effectively minimizes missing wedge artifacts and restores missing information.

• MBIR can significantly boost contrast of tomograms of cryo specimens. • MBIR can significantly reduce missing wedge artifacts and retain sharp features. • MBIR can partially restore the missing information in the unsampled angular region. • MBIR can improve the resolution of subtomogram averages. Cryo-Electron Tomography (cryo-ET) has become an essential technique in revealing cellular and macromolecular assembly structures in their native states. However, due to radiation damage and the limited tilt range, cryo-ET suffers from low contrast and missing wedge artifacts, which limits the tomograms to low resolution and hinders further biological interpretation. In this study, we applied the Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction (MBIR) method to obtain tomographic 3D reconstructions of experimental cryo-ET datasets and demonstrated the advantages of MBIR in contrast improvement, missing wedge artifacts reduction, missing information restoration, and subtomogram averaging compared with other reconstruction approaches. Considering the outstanding reconstruction quality, MBIR has a great potential in the determination of high resolution biological structures with cryo-ET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]