Search results for "resolution."

Identification of New Antimicrobial Peptides from Mediterranean Medical Plant Charybdis pancration (Steinh.) Speta

2020

The present work was designed to identify and characterize novel antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from Charybdis pancration (Steinh.) Speta, previously named Urginea maritima, is a Mediterranean plant, well-known for its biological properties in traditional medicine. Polypeptide-enriched extracts from different parts of the plant (roots, leaves and bulb), never studied before, were tested against two relevant pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. With the aim of identifying novel natural AMPs, peptide fraction displaying antimicrobial activity (the bulb) that showed minimum inhibitory concentration (MICs) equal to 30 &micro

pH-sensitive vibrational probe reveals a cytoplasmic protonated cluster in bacteriorhodopsin

2017

Infrared spectroscopy has been used in the past to probe the dynamics of internal proton transfer reactions taking place during the functional mechanism of proteins but has remained mostly silent to protonation changes in the aqueous medium. Here, by selectively monitoring vibrational changes of buffer molecules with a temporal resolution of 6 µs, we have traced proton release and uptake events in the light-driven proton-pump bacteriorhodopsin and correlate these to other molecular processes within the protein. We demonstrate that two distinct chemical entities contribute to the temporal evolution and spectral shape of the continuum band, an unusually broad band extending from 2,300 to well…

2016

AbstractPhytochromes are a family of photoreceptors that control light responses of plants, fungi and bacteria. A sequence of structural changes, which is not yet fully understood, leads to activation of an output domain. Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) can potentially shine light on these conformational changes. Here we report the room temperature crystal structure of the chromophore-binding domains of the Deinococcus radiodurans phytochrome at 2.1 Å resolution. The structure was obtained by serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography from microcrystals at an X-ray free electron laser. We find overall good agreement compared to a crystal structure at 1.35 Å resolution d…

Three-dimensional multiple-particle tracking with nanometric precision over tunable axial ranges

2017

The precise localization of nanometric objects in three dimensions is essential to identify functional diffusion mechanisms in complex systems at the cellular or molecular level. However, most optical methods can achieve high temporal resolution and high localization precision only in two dimensions or over a limited axial (z) range. Here we develop a novel wide-field detection system based on an electrically tunable lens that can track multiple individual nanoscale emitters in three dimensions over a tunable axial range with nanometric localization precision. The optical principle of the technique is based on the simultaneous acquisition of two images with an extended depth of field while …

View images with unprecedented resolution in integral microscopy

2018

Integral microscopy is a novel technique that allows the simultaneous capture of multiple perspective images of microscopic samples. This feature is achieved at the cost of a significant reduction of the spatial resolution. In fact, it is assumed that in the best cases the resolution is reduced by a factor that is not smaller than ten, what poses a hard drawback to the utility of the technique. However, to the best of our knowledge, this resolution limitation has never been researched rigorously. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to explore the real limitations in resolution of integral microscopy and to obtain optically, without the need of any image-processing algorithm, perspecti…

Super-resolution binding activated localization microscopy through reversible change of DNA conformation

2018

ABSTRACT Methods of super-resolving light microscopy (SRM) have found an exponentially growing range of applications in cell biology, including nuclear structure analyses. Recent developments have proven that Single Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM), a type of SRM, is particularly useful for enhanced spatial analysis of the cell nucleus due to its highest resolving capability combined with very specific fluorescent labeling. In this commentary we offer a brief review of the latest methodological development in the field of SMLM of chromatin designated DNA Structure Fluctuation Assisted Binding Activated Localization Microscopy (abbreviated as fBALM) as well as its potential future app…

Fast UPLC/PDA determination of squalene in Sicilian P.D.O. pistachio from Bronte: Optimization of oil extraction method and analytical characterizati…

2017

Abstract A fast reversed-phase UPLC method was developed for squalene determination in Sicilian pistachio samples that entry in the European register of the products with P.D.O. In the present study the SPE procedure was optimized for the squalene extraction prior to the UPLC/PDA analysis. The precision of the full analytical procedure was satisfactory and the mean recoveries were 92.8 ± 0.3% and 96.6 ± 0.1% for 25 and 50 mg L−1 level of addition, respectively. Selected chromatographic conditions allowed a very fast squalene determination; in fact it was well separated in ∼0.54 min with good resolution. Squalene was detected in all the pistachio samples analyzed and the levels ranged from 5…

Characterizing microstructural tissue properties in multiple sclerosis with diffusion MRI at 7 T and 3 T: The impact of the experimental design

2019

The recent introduction of advanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques to characterize focal and global degeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS), like the Composite Hindered and Restricted Model of Diffusion, or CHARMED, diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) and Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) made available new tools to image axonal pathology non-invasively in vivo. These methods already showed greater sensitivity and specificity compared to conventional diffusion tensor-based metrics (e.g., fractional anisotropy), overcoming some of its limitations. While previous studies uncovered global and focal axonal degeneration in MS patients compared to healthy contr…

A Single-sensor High-resolution Panoramic Optical Mapping Configuration for Simultaneous Non-overlapped Complete Atrial and Ventricular Parametric Im…

2017

Nowadays optical mapping (OM) is the primary method for imaging electrophysiologically relevant parameters from the outer surface of Langendorff-perfused hearts. This technique has become essential for comprehensively understanding mechanisms of cardiac propagation during physiological activation, arrhythmia, and therapeutic antiarrhythmic interventions in translational hearts. Panoramic whole heart optical mapping systems, using either multiple cameras, plane mirrors or a combination of both, have been developed to overcome intrinsic visualization limitations to traditional single-sensor designs. However current panoramic OM systems are financially challenging for physiology and engineerin…

Dual-mode holographic microscopy imaging platform

2018

We report on a novel layout capable of dual-mode imaging in real time with different magnifications and resolution capabilities in lensless microscopy. The concept is based on wavelength multiplexing for providing two illuminations with different wavefront curvatures: one is collimated, allowing a large field of view (FOV) with a poor resolution limit, and the other is divergent, to achieve a better resolution limit (micron range) over a small FOV. Moreover, our recently reported concept of MISHELF microscopy [M. Sanz, J. Á. Picazo-Bueno, L. Granero, J. García and V. Micó, Sci. Rep., 2017, 7, 43291] is applied to the divergent illumination case, improving the image quality by noise averagin…