Department of Physics, The University of Oregon, United States.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2018 Jun;43:31-37. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.11.008. Epub 2017 Nov 22.
Microbes often live in dense, dynamic, multi-species communities whose architecture and function are intimately intertwined. Imaging these complex, three-dimensional ensembles presents considerable technical challenges, however. In this review, I describe light sheet fluorescence microscopy, a technique that enables rapid acquisition of three-dimensional images over large fields of view and over long durations, and I highlight recent applications of this method to microbial systems that include artificial closed ecosystems, bacterial biofilms, and gut microbiota. I comment also on the history of light sheet imaging and the many variants of the method. Light sheet techniques have tremendous potential for illuminating the workings of microbial communities, a potential that is just beginning to be realized.
微生物通常生活在密集、动态、多物种的群落中，其结构和功能紧密交织在一起。然而，对这些复杂的三维组合进行成像存在相当大的技术挑战。在这篇综述中，我描述了光片荧光显微镜技术，该技术能够在大视场和长时间内快速获取三维图像，我还重点介绍了该方法在包括人工封闭生态系统、细菌生物膜和肠道微生物群在内的微生物系统中的最新应用。我还评论了光片成像的历史和该方法的许多变体。光片技术具有阐明微生物群落工作原理的巨大潜力，这种潜力才刚刚开始显现。
