title: New tools for labeling silica in living diatoms.
abstract: Silicon biomineralization is a widespread mechanism found in several kingdoms that concerns both unicellular and multicellular organisms. As a result of genomic and molecular tools, diatoms have emerged as a good model for biomineralization studies and have provided most of the current knowledge on this process. However, the number of techniques available to study its dynamics at the cellular level is still rather limited. Here, new probes were developed specifically to label the pre-existing or the newly synthesized silica frustule of several diatoms species. It is shown that the LysoTracker Yellow HCK-123, which can be used to visualize silica frustules with common filter sets, presents an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio and allows details of the frustules to be imaged without of the use of ionophores. It is also demonstrated that methoxysilane derivatives can be coupled to fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate (FITC) to preferentially label the silica components of living cells. The coupling of labeling procedures might help to address the challenging question of the process of frustule exocytosis.
authors: Laboratoire Biologie Moléculaire des Organismes Photosynthétiques CNRS UMR-8186, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Julien
authors: J
authors: Desclés
authors: Laboratoire Biologie Moléculaire des Organismes Photosynthétiques CNRS UMR-8186, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Mathieu
authors: M
authors: Vartanian
authors: Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Abdeslam
authors: A
authors: El Harrak
authors: Laboratoire Biologie Moléculaire des Organismes Photosynthétiques CNRS UMR-8186, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Michelle
authors: M
authors: Quinet
authors: Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Nicolas
authors: N
authors: Bremond
authors: Laboratoire Biologie Moléculaire des Organismes Photosynthétiques CNRS UMR-8186, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Guillaume
authors: G
authors: Sapriel
authors: Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Jérome
authors: J
authors: Bibette
authors: Laboratoire Biologie Moléculaire des Organismes Photosynthétiques CNRS UMR-8186, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors: Pascal J
authors: PJ
authors: Lopez
mesh_terms: D017377:Diatoms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D005089:Exocytosis / Q000502:physiology; D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D010069:Oxadiazoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; C528836:HCK-123; D010069:Oxadiazoles; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate