Expansion Microscopy of Lipid Membranes

Karagiannis, E. D.; Kang, J. S.; Shin, T. W.; Emenari, A.; Asano, S.; Lin, L.; Costa, E. K.; CRUK IMAXT Grand Challenge Consortium,; Marblestone, A. H.; Kasthuri, N.; Boyden, E. S.

doi:10.1101/829903

bioRxiv · 10.1101/829903

Expansion Microscopy of Lipid Membranes

Karagiannis, E. D.·Kang, J. S.·Shin, T. W.·Emenari, A.·Asano, S.·Lin, L.·Costa, E. K.·CRUK IMAXT Grand Challenge Consortium,·Marblestone, A. H.·Kasthuri, N.·Boyden, E. S.

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Abstract

Lipids are fundamental building blocks of cells and their organelles, yet nanoscale resolution imaging of lipids has been largely limited to electron microscopy techniques. We introduce and validate a chemical tag that enables lipid membranes to be imaged optically at nanoscale resolution via a lipid-optimized form of expansion microscopy, which we call membrane expansion microscopy (mExM). mExM, via a novel post-expansion antibody labeling protocol, enables protein-lipid relationships to be imaged in organelles such as mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, the nuclear membrane, and the Golgi apparatus. mExM may be of use in a variety of biological contexts, including the study of cell-cell interactions, intracellular transport, and neural connectomics.

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Karagiannis, E. D., Kang, J. S., Shin, T. W., Emenari, A., Asano, S., Lin, L., Costa, E. K., CRUK IMAXT Grand Challenge Consortium,, Marblestone, A. H., Kasthuri, N., Boyden, E. S.. 2019-11-04. Expansion Microscopy of Lipid Membranes. https://doi.org/10.1101/829903

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