The power of the Image. As author and cartoonist James Thurber once observed “There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures”. Cell biology would be nowhere without some photons to drench the otherwise dim and often lifeless specimens that we so carefully produce. Thanks to some remarkable developments in microscopes and staining tools, we can easily capture images and sit in awe and wonder at the hitherto invisible beauty found in nature. So what makes an image an outstanding image? Is it the biology underlying? Is it the technical prowess of the sample maker? Is it the composition or colour choice? Is it all these together? It is probably all or at least most of the above.
The 2019 Image competition results are here.
The head of a Drosophila pupa: The developing compound eye (green) is composed of several hundred simple units called ommatidia arranged in an extremely regular array. The giant polyploidy cells of the fat body (red), the fly equivalent of the mammalian liver and adipose tissue, occupy a big area of the head.
Confocal image showing a murine colonic epithelial organoid grown in Matrigel (3D culture). Crypt-like projections containing epithelial progenitors can be seen protruding from the spheroid. Stained for DNA with DAPI (Blue), the nuclear envelope with LaminB1 (Green) and the centrosome marker γ-tubulin (Red).
Exquisitely dotted melanocytes of mouse skin revealed by anti-TRP1 staining (Green) and individual hair follicles stained by anti-keratin14 (Red). Blue indicates DAPI staining of cell nuclei and autofluorescent hair shafts. Wholemount immunostaining was carried out on mouse tail epidermis.
Small intestinal polyp of an ApcMin mouse. An IMARIS-rendered surface of Phalloidin (red) and nuclei (cyan) show changes associated with early cancer development. Normal structure is lost as the lumen becomes highly folded and epithelial cells start piling on top of one another due to excess proliferation.
This is a confocal image showing intricate structure of astroglial cells (pink, stained with anti GFAP antibody) interconnected with neurons (stained light blue with anti-β III tubulin). Astrocytes are increasingly appreciated as key modulators of neuronal health and function.
First Prize: Dr. Anna Franz, School of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol.
The beauty and complexity of the central nervous system of a grasshopper embryo is revealed by anti-HRP staining (coloured purple). Other tissues are stained with anti-acetylated tubulin (coloured green).
Neural differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs): Following neural induction of hESCs, cells form neural rosettes structures to give rise to neural progenitors. Neural rosettes can be spotted by their rosette-like conformation and positive co-expression of pax6 (green) and nestin (red). Cell nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue).
Dr. Louise Hughes, Bio-Imaging Unit, Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.
Kissing trypanosomes: The image shows the final stage of cell division for the single-celled parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, with the two daughter cells connected at their posterior end. The image is generated from reconstructed data from serial block face scanning electron microscopy, showing the cells, their flagella (red and purple) and internal organelles.
Highly commended: Timothy Grocott, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
Multi-photon imaging of the embryonic eye: A false-coloured image showing a cutaway through the invaginating lens placode (blue tissue layer) situated within the optic cup (yellow tissue layer) of a 2.5-day chick embryo. The surrounding mesenchyme was removed for clarity, while cell nuclei are labelled red.
Arabidopsis thaliana embryo cells imaged by confocal microscopy. Long Caption: The plasma membrane of the Arabidopsis thaliana embryo cells is stained with FM4-64 (shown in red) and protein storage vacuoles autofluoresce (shown in blue).
You can find out more about the people behind the images here.
In filamentous cells of the bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides, the tubulin homolog FtsZ (tagged with CFP) forms dot-like and spiral structures in two distinct populations. The FtsZ cytoskeleton affects the localization of the membrane chemosensory protein clusters (YFP). Cell bodies are shown in magenta.
The image shows a midbody purified from HeLa cells synchronized in cytokinesis that has been fixed and immuno-stained to detect tubulin (shown in red) and Citron kinase (shown in green).
A scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of DT-40 cells adhered to glass and fixed with aldehydes. The cells were pseudo coloured to make them resemble scoops of ice-cream.
Matthew’s image shows Collagen IV staining which reveals the vasculature of the mouse retina. Initially during development, the superficial plexus (green) expands radially from the centre to cover the retina. Vessels then sprout from the superficial plexus and descend to form the intermediate (blue) and deep plexus (red).
Keiran’s image shows the morphology of the neuron as visualised by staining with an antibody against bIII-tubulin (blue). Incoming axons form synapses onto the neuron, which appear yellow due to staining with antibodies for the presynaptic proteins VAMP2 (red) and Synapsin-1 (green).
Michael’s image shows COS-7 cells ectopically expressing the Fcγ-receptor performing phagocytosis on beads opsonised with Immunoglobulin G. His false-colour scanning electron micrograph shows filopodia and pseudopodia projecting around the beads, which will subsequently be fully engulfed. The beads are three micrometres in diameter.
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The rules and regulations for the image competition can be found here.