Re: Usefulness of super-resolution?

Posted by Gwosch, Klaus on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Usefulness-of-super-resolution-tp7587169p7587187.html

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Dear Gabor,

As you mentioned, the PNAS paper from the Zhuang lab is an excellent example of something that can be seen ONLY with super-resolution.
I would like to point out that that paper is just one of a series of works in which the Zhuang’s and Hell’s lab characterize unprecedented features regarding the organization of the cytoskeleton, adhesion molecules and even channels throughout the nervous system both in (living) cultured cells and in tissues.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/339/6118/452.full
https://elifesciences.org/articles/04581
http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(15)00134-5
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep22741
http://www.pnas.org/content/114/2/E191.short

Other prominent examples of discoveries allowed by super resolution are
- The organization of proteins on synaptic vesicles https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7086/full/nature04592.html
- The ultrastructural organization of the neuromuscular synapse in Drosophila http://science.sciencemag.org/content/312/5776/1051.full
- The organization of mitochondrial proteins http://www.pnas.org/content/110/22/8936.abstract and the formation of BAX rings on the mitochondria during the apoptotic process http://emboj.embopress.org/content/early/2016/01/14/embj.201592789
- The structure of transverse tubules (TTs) in cardiomyocytes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4219578/

Best,
Klaus


-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Csúcs Gábor
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2017 4:47 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Usefulness of super-resolution?

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Dear All,

I would have a slightly provocative question to the community: Could you help me to identify significant/major biological discoveries that were clearly dependent on the availability of various super-resolution light microscopy methods? The PNAS paper from the Zhuang lab (2016) about the actin-spectrin ring is a good example for me but I am looking for further ones. Of course, we also use super-resolution techniques in our facility but my observation is that these are used rather to provide "one nice image for a publication" or "another piece in the puzzle of evidences" but they are not "game winners", they were not necessarily the major piece of evidence to prove a biological hypothesis. So I am looking for biological questions that could be answered "only"/mostly by the existing super-resolution methods.
        Thanks a lot for your help!

Greetings                       Gabor