Correction of Polyribosome Distributions as Observed in Cell Sections by Electron Microscopy

Clusters of ribosomes observed by electron microscopy in thin sections of rabbit reticulocytes are of the same order of size as the section thickness of 600 A. Many of the observed clusters must therefore have been transected by the section surfaces and observed as clusters containing fewer ribosomes. A probability method of correcting for this effect is given. Comparison of the results with grid observations of ribosome distributions indicates sufficiently good agreement for application to cell section observations.