A film about the life of organelles

Scientists filmed the interactions of cellular organelles on video

Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science

Using a whole set of colored fluorescent markers, it was possible to obtain the most detailed video recording of interactions inside a living cell.

Nowadays it is difficult to surprise someone with a video about how a living cell is arranged and functions. However, such recordings are almost always only computer graphics, which effectively reflects the results of much more boring real observations. Only recently, the technology of using fluorescent markers in microscopy has reached such perfection that it has allowed scientists to really take a real record of what is happening inside the cell, between its organelles.

According to the authors, the article which are published by the journal Nature, at this level of filming in fluorescence microscopy has not yet been carried out. The entry is devoted to lipid metabolism, the action takes place in the endoplasmic reticulum (where synthesis takes place), vesicle vesicles (transport), mitochondria and peroxisomes (utilization).

Scientists note that an important role in these processes is played by "collisions" of organelles, the emergence of temporary direct contacts between them. To observe these interactions, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz and her colleagues used multispectral fluorescent markers.

Scientists have introduced the genes of 4-5 fluorescent proteins into the DNA of monkey fibroblasts, so that each protein must be activated strictly in its organelle. Specialized harmless dyes were used to color a couple more organelles. This made it possible to track the interactions of cell organelles for more than 300 seconds – including seeing how these interactions are hindered by the introduction of nocodazole, a drug that disrupts the work of microtubules.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  25.05.2017