title: Highly inclined thin illumination enables clear single-molecule imaging in cells.
abstract: We describe a simple illumination method of fluorescence microscopy for molecular imaging. Illumination by a highly inclined and thin beam increases image intensity and decreases background intensity, yielding a signal/background ratio about eightfold greater than that of epi-illumination. A high ratio yielded clear single-molecule images and three-dimensional images using cultured mammalian cells, enabling one to visualize and quantify molecular dynamics, interactions and kinetics in cells for molecular systems biology.
authors.affiliation: Biological Macromolecules Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics, Yata 1111, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-8540, Japan. mtoku@lab.nig.ac.jp
authors.forename: Makio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tokunaga
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Imamoto
authors.forename: Kumiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakata-Sogawa
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers / Q000378:metabolism*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D008029:Lighting / Q000379:methods*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers