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Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, 4(10), p. e0125438, 2015

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125438

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Virtual-'Light-Sheet' Single-Molecule Localisation Microscopy Enables Quantitative Optical Sectioning for Super-Resolution Imaging

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125438 ; Single-molecule super-resolution microscopy allows imaging of fluorescently-tagged proteins in live cells with a precision well below that of the diffraction limit. Here, we demonstrate 3D sectioning with single-molecule super-resolution microscopy by making use of fitting information that is usually discarded to reject fluorophores that emit from above or below a virtual-?light-sheet?, a thin volume centred on the focal plane of the microscope. We describe an easy-to-use routine (implemented as an open-source ImageJ plug-in) to quickly analyse a calibration sample to define and use such a virtual light-sheet. In addition, the plug-in is easily usable on almost any existing 2D super-resolution instrumentation. This optical sectioning of super-resolution images is achieved by applying well-characterised width and amplitude thresholds to diffraction-limited spots that can be used to tune the thickness of the virtual light-sheet. This allows qualitative and quantitative imaging improvements: by rejecting out-of-focus fluorophores, the super-resolution image gains contrast and local features may be revealed; by retaining only fluorophores close to the focal plane, virtual-?light-sheet? single-molecule localisation microscopy improves the probability that all emitting fluorophores will be detected, fitted and quantitatively evaluated. ; We thank the Wellcome Trust for the PhD studentship of MP (093756/B/10/Z), and the Royal Society for the University Research Fellowship of SFL (UF120277). The work by SB and DL was also funded by the Wellcome Trust (082010/Z/07/Z). UE and MH acknowledge funding by the German Science Foundation (grants EXC 115 and SFB 902). SB is funded by a BBSRC grant (BB/K013726/1). AMC acknowledges ERC Award 268788-SMI-DDR. We also thank the European Commision for support through the 4DCellFate project (EC FP7 CP 277899).