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Gut See
21 October 2016

Gut See

Shining a light on microscopic life is only half the battle to seeing what’s going on. Fluorescent proteins (FPs) are often used like bright beacons inside cells and tissues, but looking down through a microscope can be like staring at street lights from a plane – blurry and indistinct. These fruit fly intestines have been genetically engineered to produce a special type of photoactivatable FP, switched on and off with lasers. A technique called RESOLFT uses fast on/off switching to picture small areas of fluorescence one after another. A bit like turning a string of lights on one at a time, a sharp pattern emerges behind the glare – here individual tubules in the gut’s cytoskeleton stand out like flames in a fire. Examining the fruit fly’s digestive system tells us a lot about how our own guts evolved, but these techniques are being used to spot details inside human cells, too.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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