The review is now published in the Annual Review of Biophysics! It focusses on what we can learn by visualising the movement of intracellular compartments, which support key cellular processes like protein synthesis.
A key factor in designing microscopy experiments is to match the spatial and temporal resolution of your chosen microscope to the size and speed of the structures you want to study. For example, mitochondria are generally bigger and slower than RNA-containing granules. Different techniques cover different combinations of speed and spatial resolution, but not all combinations that are biologically significant are covered by existing techniques (see Figure). Our review explores recent developments in high-resolution imaging that seek to address those gaps, matching them to key biological applications, and outlines potential future research directions.
This review was written by Francesca van Tartwijk, Liuba Dvinskikh, Edward Ward, Meng Lu, and Clemens Kaminski. With thanks to our production editor and figure editor at Annual Reviews for all their great work and support throughout the publication process.
Image: Microscopy techniques do not cover all spatiotemporal scales. (a) Intracellular dynamics occur over extensive length scales and timescales. (b) Range of spatiotemporal scales and relative illumination intensities associated with various fluorescence microscopy techniques.