Beautiful Structure
Dental plaque biofilms imaged with exquisite detail
Jessica Mark Welch, Gary Borisy and other authors have published a study in PNAS that uses CLASI FISH to study dental plaque biofilms. The technique is a variation on classic fluorescence in situ hybridisation, but uses spectral imaging, which allows many more probes by combining different fluorophores together. The result is an incredible set of images with amazing spatial and phylogenetic resolution.
The publication is available at PNAS here http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/01/20/15221... and Ed Yong has a nice write up of it on his blog http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/25...
1 Comment
Wow, they are beautiful. I also love the names they give the the structures - very descriptive. CLASI FISH is a really powerful technique, especially as 'smarter' probes are being developed all the time that hold a lot of information in their spectra.