Negative staining is a rapid, qualitative method for analyzing microtubule structure at the EM level. Because negative staining involves deposition of heavy atom stains, structural artifacts such as flattening of the cylindrical microtubule and opening up of microtubules into flat sheets are common. Negative staining is very useful because of its ease, rapidity and lack of requirement for specialized equipment other than that found in a regular EM facility.
