Issue 57, 2021

Stick, stretch, and scan imaging method for DNA and filaments

Abstract

Biomolecules and organelles usually undergo changes to their structure or form as a result of mechanical stretching or stimulation. It is critical to be able to observe these changes and responses, which trigger mechano-chemical coupling or signal transduction. Advanced techniques have been developed to observe structure and form during manipulation; however, these require sophisticated methods. We have developed a simple approach to observe fine structure after stretching without fluorophore labeling. DNAs or molecules on the cell surface were bound to magnetic microbeads, followed by stretching with a magnetic field. After fixing, staining, and drying, the samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy with no need to build a functional surface with complex processes. Straight DNAs were observed rather than random-walk-like loose polymers. In our cellular experiment, the magnetic beads were bound to a Jurkat cell and formed a rosette which was later stuck to the substrate. A 41.3 μm filament on the base of a filopodium was pulled out via integrin from a cell. Therefore, our method can reveal long structures up to hundreds of micrometers at nanometer resolution after stretching or twisting. Our approach could have wide applications in structure–function studies of biomolecules, and in mechanobiology and cell biology when diffraction cannot used.

Graphical abstract: Stick, stretch, and scan imaging method for DNA and filaments

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Sep 2021
Accepted
29 Oct 2021
First published
09 Nov 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2021,11, 36060-36065

Stick, stretch, and scan imaging method for DNA and filaments

Q. Zeng, Y. Gao, H. Yu, W. Zhu, Q. Wang, Q. Long, Z. Fan and B. Xiao, RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 36060 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA07067C

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