Tyson is a tool for the 3D reconstruction of biological macromolecules and complexes. It was originally designed as a particle picking picking program, and at this moment this functionality is still the main feature of the program. Recently, however, Tyson has been completely rewritten in a modular fashion. This modular setup allows us to incorporate various algorithms for different steps of the reconstruction process. The goal is to make Tyson a versatile tool for cryo-electron microscopists by incorporating new and exciting methods.

In order to provide maximum compatibility with other existing programs, various file-formats are supported by Tyson. Furthermore, all information gathered in a Tyson project is stored in easily readable XML-files. For more information on the setup of Tyson-projects and the file-formats, check the manual or follow the tutorial.

Tyson is developed in C++ on a Mandrake Linux system. It uses Qt as a graphical library and FFTW for calculating Fourier transforms. Tyson is released under the GNU Public License (GPL).

Features

• Micrograph view function
• Micrograph zoom window
• Distance measurements in micrographs
• Particle search using local average method
• Particle search using template method
• Particle search using local variance method
• Particle search in a collection of micrographs
• Particle gallery
• Sorting of particles for easy false positive removal
• Quick and easy editing of particle sets
• Merging of particle sets
• Image export and print capabilities