Super-resolution imaging of fluorescent dipoles via polarized structured illumination microscopy

Nat Commun. 2019 Oct 16;10(1):4694. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12681-w.

Abstract

Fluorescence polarization microscopy images both the intensity and orientation of fluorescent dipoles and plays a vital role in studying molecular structures and dynamics of bio-complexes. However, current techniques remain difficult to resolve the dipole assemblies on subcellular structures and their dynamics in living cells at super-resolution level. Here we report polarized structured illumination microscopy (pSIM), which achieves super-resolution imaging of dipoles by interpreting the dipoles in spatio-angular hyperspace. We demonstrate the application of pSIM on a series of biological filamentous systems, such as cytoskeleton networks and λ-DNA, and report the dynamics of short actin sliding across a myosin-coated surface. Further, pSIM reveals the side-by-side organization of the actin ring structures in the membrane-associated periodic skeleton of hippocampal neurons and images the dipole dynamics of green fluorescent protein-labeled microtubules in live U2OS cells. pSIM applies directly to a large variety of commercial and home-built SIM systems with various imaging modality.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Actins / ultrastructure*
  • Animals
  • Bacteriophage lambda / genetics
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cytoskeleton / ultrastructure*
  • DNA / ultrastructure*
  • Hippocampus / cytology
  • Humans
  • Kidney
  • Mice
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence / methods*
  • Microscopy, Polarization / methods*
  • Myosins / ultrastructure*
  • Neurons / ultrastructure*

Substances

  • Actins
  • DNA
  • Myosins