Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 16, 2026

MRC (file format)

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 Laboratory of Molecular Biology. In 2014, the format was standardised. The format specification is available on the CCP-EM website.

Last revised
Jul 16, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
183 w
Citations
2
Source
Wikipedia ↗
mrc
Filename extension
.mrc
Type of format3D electron density file or 2D image file
Websitehttp://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.

See also

See also

References

References

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
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