Secrets of cells revealed

With the advancement of technology we are managing to see ever smaller and smaller pieces of the puzzle that is life.

The August 2006 issue of Microbiology Today, the quarterly magazine of the Society for General Microbiology, looks at vital role that microscopy plays to advance our understanding of the lives of some fascinating micro-organisms.

Fluorescence microscopy as a research tool in bacterial cell biology Jeff Errington takes a look at the revolutionary new views of the subcellular organization of bacteria provided by immunofluorescence, GFP and digital imaging.

Investigating a bacterial killer using atomic force microscopy Atomic force microscopy is a powerful technique for studying biological surfaces and molecular structure. In their article, Megan Núñez and Eileen Spain tell us how they have applied AFM to study the secret life of the predatory killer, Bdellovibrio.

As we've seen with SARS and bird ‘flu, viruses seem to have few problems travelling across continents – they use their hosts! But how do viruses, which have no independent means of locomotion, manage to move within and between the cells of their host? Tom Wileman uses fluorescence microscopy to find out.

Studying single molecules in microbial systems Recent advances in imaging technologies have enabled researchers to pinpoint individual molecules in living cells. Christoph Baumann describes two key bacterial enzyme complexes that have advanced our understanding of ‘nanoscopic' motion.

Recent advances in fluorescence imaging have lead to some amazing findings, but the technical challenges and baffling array of options have tended to restrict new technologies to a limited few. Iain Hagan and colleagues look at simple and affordable steps to exploit these developments.

These are just some of the articles that appear, together with all the regular features and reports of Society activities.

http://www.sgm.ac.uk/pubs/micro_today/