TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kunz, Tobias C.
A1  - Rühling, Marcel
A1  - Moldovan, Adriana
A1  - Paprotka, Kerstin
A1  - Kozjak-Pavlovic, Vera
A1  - Rudel, Thomas
A1  - Fraunholz, Martin
T1  - The Expandables: Cracking the Staphylococcal Cell Wall for Expansion Microscopy
JF  - Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
N2  - Expansion Microscopy (ExM) is a novel tool improving the resolution of fluorescence microscopy by linking the sample into a hydrogel that gets physically expanded in water. Previously, we have used ExM to visualize the intracellular Gram-negative pathogens Chlamydia trachomatis, Simkania negevensis, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gram-positive bacteria have a rigid and thick cell wall that impedes classic expansion strategies. Here we developed an approach, which included a series of enzymatic treatments resulting in isotropic 4× expansion of the Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. We further demonstrate the suitability of the technique for imaging of planktonic bacteria as well as endocytosed, intracellular bacteria at a spatial resolution of approximately 60 nm with conventional confocal laser scanning microscopy.
KW  - high-resolution imaging
KW  - endosomes
KW  - autophagosomes
KW  - host-pathogen interaction
KW  - expansion microscopy
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-232292
SN  - 2235-2988
VL  - 11
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kunz, Tobias C.
A1  - Götz, Ralph
A1  - Sauer, Markus
A1  - Rudel, Thomas
T1  - Detection of chlamydia developmental forms and secreted effectors by expansion microscopy
JF  - Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
N2  - Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a novel tool to improve the resolution of fluorescence-based microscopy that has not yet been used to visualize intracellular pathogens. Here we show the expansion of the intracellular pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis, enabling to differentiate its two distinct forms, catabolic active reticulate bodies (RB) and infectious elementary bodies (EB), on a conventional confocal microscope. We show that ExM enables the possibility to precisely locate chlamydial effector proteins, such as CPAF or Cdu1, within and outside of the chlamydial inclusion. Thus, we claim that ExM offers the possibility to address a broad range of questions and may be useful for further research on various intracellular pathogens.
KW  - expansion microscopy
KW  - chlamydia
KW  - secreted effectors
KW  - developmental forms
KW  - superresolution
KW  - imaging
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195716
SN  - 2235-2988
VL  - 9
IS  - 276
ER  -