This month’s Under the Lens discusses the application of high-speed atomic force microscopy to image fragile bacterial membrane vesicles by briefly touching them with a gentle tapping force, revealing species-specific heterogeneity in membrane vesicle size distribution linked to biological function.
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References
Toyofuku, M., Nomura, N. & Eberl, L. Types and origins of bacterial membrane vesicles. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 17, 13–24 (2019).
Kikuchi, Y. et al. Diversity of physical properties of bacterial extracellular membrane vesicles revealed through atomic force microscopy phase imaging. Nanoscale 12, 7950–795 (2020).
Casuso, I., Redondo-Morata, L. & Rico, F. Biological physics by high-speed atomic force microscopy. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A 378, 20190604 (2020).
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Cohen-Khait, R. Imaging bacterial membrane vesicles with a delicate touch. Nat Rev Microbiol 19, 76 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-00492-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-020-00492-6