Advancements in optical microscopy technology have allowed huge progression in the ability to understand protein structure and dynamics in live bacterial cells using fluorescence microscopy. Paramount to high-quality microscopy is good sample preparation to avoid bacterial cell movement that can result in motion blur during image acquisition. Here, we describe two techniques of sample preparation that reduce unwanted cell movement and are suitable for application to a number of bacterial species and imaging methods.
Keywords: Agarose pads; Bacterial slide preparation; Fast three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy; GelGro slabs; Super-resolution microscopy.