Centre Universitârio da Fundaçâo Educacional Guaxupé , Guaxupé, MG , Brasil.
Braz J Microbiol. 2012 Jan;43(1):341-7. doi: 10.1590/S1517-838220120001000040. Epub 2012 Jun 1.
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) can be used to obtain high-resolution topographical images of bacteria revealing surface details and cell integrity. During scanning however, the interactions between the AFM probe and the membrane results in distortion of the images. Such distortions or artifacts are the result of geometrical effects related to bacterial cell height, specimen curvature and the AFM probe geometry. The most common artifact in imaging is surface broadening, what can lead to errors in bacterial sizing. Several methods of correction have been proposed to compensate for these artifacts and in this study we describe a simple geometric model for the interaction between the tip (a pyramidal shaped AFM probe) and the bacterium (Escherichia coli JM-109 strain) to minimize the enlarging effect. Approaches to bacteria immobilization and examples of AFM images analysis are also described.
原子力显微镜（AFM）可用于获取细菌的高分辨率形貌图像，揭示表面细节和细胞完整性。然而，在扫描过程中，AFM 探针与细胞膜之间的相互作用会导致图像失真。这种失真或伪影是与细菌细胞高度、标本曲率和 AFM 探针几何形状相关的几何效应的结果。成像中最常见的伪影是表面展宽，这可能导致细菌尺寸测量的误差。已经提出了几种校正方法来补偿这些伪影，本研究中我们描述了一种用于针尖（金字塔形 AFM 探针）与细菌（大肠杆菌 JM-109 株）之间相互作用的简单几何模型，以最小化放大效应。还描述了细菌固定化的方法和 AFM 图像分析的示例。
