What kinds of biological samples have been imaged with single-molecule imaging techniques?
So far, the biological samples that have been imaged with SMLM include focal adhesions, microtubules, proteins in cryosections and chemotaxis receptors inside bacteria. All these samples are ideal for single-molecule imaging because they are thin samples or are associated with a flat membrane. They also have little 3 D structure, and can be densely labeled. One 3 D structure that has been imaged using single-molecule imaging techniques is the mitochondrion [15]. Using antibody labeling, it was possible to image the mitochondria with a z-range of 3 μm, and a z-resolution of approximately 50 nm. SMLM techniques are still quite new, and so only a few studies have used them to understand and model biological processes. Greenfield et al. [16] used SMLM imaging to develop a model of how chemotaxis receptors in Escherichia coli organize in growing cells. In addition, they confirmed a theoretical prediction that many small clusters of receptors exist inside cells; these small clusters were pre
