A three-dimensional (3d) reconstruction from electron tomography (ET) can contain many objects such as small organelles, protein complexes or virus particles that may or may not be identical. In cases where it is not possible to analyze such objects using conventional single particle imaging and reconstruction techniques, it is still possible to combine information from the individual objects and generate an average reconstruction of such a collection of objects. This can greatly enhance the quality and resolution of this averaged reconstruction if the objects are similar/identical and can, conversely, clearly show that they are not similar enough to average productively.
