Using size-selected gold clusters on graphene oxide films to aid cryo-transmission electron tomography alignment

A three-dimensional reconstruction of a nano-scale aqueous object can be achieved by taking a series of transmission electron micrographs tilted at different angles in vitreous ice: cryo-Transmission Electron Tomography. Presented here is a novel method of fine alignment for the tilt series. Size-selected gold clusters of ~2.7 nm (Au(561 ± 14)), ~3.2 nm (Au(923 ± 22)), and ~4.3 nm (Au(2057 ± 45)) in diameter were deposited onto separate graphene oxide films overlaying holes on amorphous carbon grids. After plunge freezing and subsequent transfer to cryo-Transmission Electron Tomography, the resulting tomograms have excellent (de-)focus and alignment properties during automatic acquisition. Fine alignment is accurate when the evenly distributed 3.2 nm gold particles are used as fiducial markers, demonstrated with a reconstruction of a tobacco mosaic virus. Using a graphene oxide film means the fiducial markers are not interfering with the ice bound sample and that automated collection is consistent. The use of pre-deposited size-selected clusters means there is no aggregation and a user defined concentration. The size-selected clusters are mono-dispersed and can be produced in a wide size range including 2–5 nm in diameter. The use of size-selected clusters on a graphene oxide films represents a significant technical advance for 3D cryo-electron microscopy

Correlative light electron microscopy using small gold nanoparticles as single probes

Correlative light electron microscopy (CLEM) requires the availability of robust probes which are visible both in light and electron microscopy. Here we demonstrate a CLEM approach using small gold nanoparticles as a single probe. Individual gold nanoparticles bound to the epidermal growth factor protein were located with nanometric precision background-free in human cancer cells by light microscopy using resonant four-wave-mixing (FWM), and were correlatively mapped with high accuracy to the corresponding transmission electron microscopy images. We used nanoparticles of 10 nm and 5 nm radius, and show a correlation accuracy below 60 nm over an area larger than 10 um size, without the need for additional fiducial markers. Correlation accuracy was improved to below 40 nm by reducing systematic errors, while the localisation precision is below 10 nm. Polarisation-resolved FWM correlates with nanoparticle shapes, promising for multiplexing by shape recognition in future applications. Owing to the photostability of gold nanoparticles and the applicability of FWM microscopy to living cells, FWM-CLEM opens up a powerful alternative to fluorescence-based methods

Lipid species affect morphology of endoplasmic reticulum: a sea urchin oocyte model of reversible manipulation

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a large multifunctional organelle of eukaryotic cells. Malfunction of the ER in various disease states, such as atherosclerosis, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often correlates with alterations in its morphology. The ER exhibits regionally variable membrane morphology that includes, at the extremes, large relatively flat surfaces and interconnected tubular structures highly curved in cross-section. Much evidence suggests that ER morphology is controlled by shaping proteins that associate with membrane lipids. To investigate the role of these lipids in ER morphology, we developed a sea urchin oocyte model which is a relatively quiescent cell in which the ER consists mostly of tubules. We altered levels of endogenous diacylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine by microinjection of enzymes or lipid delivery by fusion with liposomes and evaluated shape changes with two- and three-dimensional confocal imaging and three-dimensional electron microscopy techniques. Decreases and increases in the levels of lipids such as diacylglycerol or phosphatidylethanolamine characterized by negative spontaneous curvature correlated with conversion to sheet structures or tubules respectively. The effects of endogenous alterations of diacylglycerol were reversible upon exogenous delivery of lipids of negative spontaneous curvature. These data suggest that shaping proteins require threshold amounts of such lipids and that localized deficiencies of the lipids could contribute to alterations of ER morphology. The oocyte modeling system should be beneficial to future studies directed at understanding the precise spatial and compositional requirements of lipid species in interactions leading to alterations of organelle shaping

Acute depletion of diacylglycerol from the Cis-Golgi affects localised nuclear envelope morphology during mitosis

Dysregulation of nuclear envelope (NE) assembly results in various cancers; for example, renal and some lung carcinomas ensue due to NE malformation. The NE is a dynamic membrane compartment and its completion during mitosis, is a highly regulated process but the detailed mechanism still remains incompletely understood. Previous studies have found isolated diacylglycerol (DAG) containing vesicles are essential for completing the fusion of NE in non-somatic cells. We investigated the impact of DAG depletion from cis-Golgi in mammalian cells on NE reassembly. Using advanced electron microscopy, we observed an enriched DAG population of vesicles at the vicinity of the NE gaps of telophase mammalian cells. We applied a miniSOG-C1-domain tag that localized DAG-enriched vesicles at the perinuclear region, which suggested the existence of NE fusogenic vesicles. We quantified the impact of Golgi-DAG depletion by measuring the in situ NE rim curvature of the re-forming NE. The rim curvature in these cells was significantly reduced compared with controls, which indicated a localized defect in NE morphology. Our novel results demonstrate the significance of the role of DAG from cis-Golgi for the regulation of NE assembly

FD2015-Single Molecule Microscopy:optical micro-spectroscopy of single metallic nanoparticles: quantitative extinction and transient resonant Four-Wave Mixing

We report a wide-field imaging method to rapidly and quantitatively measure the optical extinction cross-section σext (also polarisation resolved) of a large number of individual gold nanoparticles, for statistically-relevant single particle analysis. We demonstrate a sensitivity of 5 nm2 in σext, enabling detection of single 5 nm gold nanoparticles with total acquisition times in the 1 min range. Moreover, we have developed an analytical model of the polarisation resolved σext, which enabled us to extract geometrical particle aspect ratios from the measured σext. Using this method, we have characterized a large number of nominally-spherical gold nanoparticles in the 10–100 nm size range. Furthermore, the method provided measurements of in-house fabricated nanoparticle conjugates, allowing distinction of individual dimers from single particles and larger aggregates. The same particle conjugates were investigated correlatively by phase-resolved transient resonant four-wave mixing micro-spectroscopy. A direct comparison of the phase-resolved response between single gold nanoparticles and dimers highlighted the promise of the four-wave mixing technique for sensing applications with dimers as plasmon rulers

Optical micro-spectroscopy of single metallic nanoparticles: quantitative extinction and transient resonant four-wave mixing

We report a wide-field imaging method to rapidly and quantitatively measure the optical extinction cross-section σext (also polarisation resolved) of a large number of individual gold nanoparticles, for statistically-relevant single particle analysis. We demonstrate a sensitivity of 5 nm2 in σext, enabling detection of single 5 nm gold nanoparticles with total acquisition times in the 1 min range. Moreover, we have developed an analytical model of the polarisation resolved σext, which enabled us to extract geometrical particle aspect ratios from the measured σext. Using this method, we have characterized a large number of nominally-spherical gold nanoparticles in the 10–100 nm size range. Furthermore, the method provided measurements of in-house fabricated nanoparticle conjugates, allowing distinction of individual dimers from single particles and larger aggregates. The same particle conjugates were investigated correlatively by phase-resolved transient resonant four-wave mixing micro-spectroscopy. A direct comparison of the phase-resolved response between single gold nanoparticles and dimers highlighted the promise of the four-wave mixing technique for sensing applications with dimers as plasmon rulers