MRC (file format)

mrc
Filename extension	.mrc
Type of format	3D electron density file or 2D image file
Website	http://www.ccpem.ac.uk/mrc_format/mrc2014.php

MRC is a file format that has become an industry standard in cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) and electron tomography (ET), where the result of the technique is a three-dimensional grid of voxels each with a value corresponding to electron density or electric potential. It was developed by the MRC (Medical Research Council, UK) Laboratory of Molecular Biology.^[1] In 2014, the format was standardised.^[2] The format specification is available on the CCP-EM website.

The MRC format is supported by many of the software packages listed in b:Software Tools For Molecular Microscopy.

References

^ Crowther, R.A.; Henderson, R.; Smith, J.M. (January 1996). "MRC Image Processing Programs". Journal of Structural Biology. 116 (1): 9–16. doi:10.1006/jsbi.1996.0003. PMID 8742717.
^ Cheng, Anchi; Henderson, Richard; Mastronarde, David; Ludtke, Steven J.; Schoenmakers, Remco H.M.; Short, Judith; Marabini, Roberto; Dallakyan, Sargis; Agard, David; Winn, Martyn (November 2015). "MRC2014: Extensions to the MRC format header for electron cryo-microscopy and tomography". Journal of Structural Biology. 192 (2): 146–150. doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2015.04.002. PMC 4642651. PMID 25882513.