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Visualizing the Ultrastructures and Dynamics of Synapses by Single-Molecule Nanoscopy

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Nanoscale Imaging of Synapses

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 84))

Abstract

Nanoscopic imaging techniques provide a powerful set of tools for static and dynamic fluorescence microscopy below the diffraction limit of light. Among these super-resolution techniques, photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) are based on the detection of single fluorophores, whose signals are localized with great precision. The strength of single-molecule approaches lies in their high localization accuracy and their molecular specificity and in the development of multicolor approaches, three-dimensional imaging, and the quantification of absolute molecule numbers. These capabilities make PALM and STORM imaging ideally suited to visualize the ultrastructures of synapses, to track the movements of synaptic components, and to quantify the molecular plasticity at synapses.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Kimberly Gerrow and Nadine Schibille for their comments on the chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Biologie de l’École Normale Supérieure (IBENS), INSERM U1024, Paris, France

    Christian G. Specht

  2. Institut de Biologie de l’École Normale Supérieure (IBENS), CNRS UMR 8197, Paris, France

    Christian G. Specht & Ignacio Izeddin

  3. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS UMR 8552, Département de Physique, Institut de Biologie de l’École Normale Supérieure (IBENS), Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Paris, France

    Ignacio Izeddin & Maxime Dahan

Authors
  1. Christian G. Specht
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  2. Ignacio Izeddin
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  3. Maxime Dahan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

    U. Valentin Nägerl

  2. Institute of Biology at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

    Antoine Triller

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Specht, C.G., Izeddin, I., Dahan, M. (2014). Visualizing the Ultrastructures and Dynamics of Synapses by Single-Molecule Nanoscopy. In: Nägerl, U., Triller, A. (eds) Nanoscale Imaging of Synapses. Neuromethods, vol 84. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9179-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9179-8_5

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-9178-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9179-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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