Real-time study of spatio-temporal dynamics (4D) of physiological activities in alive biological specimens with different FOVs and resolutions simultaneously

Abstract

Abstract This article reports the development of a microscopy imaging system that gives feasibility for studying spatio-temporal dynamics of physiological activities of alive biological specimens (over entire volume not only for a particular section, i.e., in 4D). The imaging technology facilitates to obtain two image frames of a section of the larger specimen ( $$\sim \text {mm}$$ ∼ mm ) with different FOVs at different resolutions or magnifications simultaneously in real-time (in addition to recovery of 3D (volume) information). Again, this imaging system addresses the longstanding challenges of housing multiple light sources (6 at the maximum till date) in microscopy (in general) and light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) (in particular), by using a tuneable pulsed laser source (with an operating wavelength in the range $$\sim 420$$ ∼ 420 –670 nm) in contrast to the conventional CW laser source being adopted for inducing photo-excitation of tagged fluorophores. In the present study, we employ four wavelengths ( $$\sim$$ ∼ 488 nm, 585 nm, 590 nm, and 594 nm). Our study also demonstrates quantitative characterization of spatio-temporal dynamics (velocity—both amplitude and direction) of organelles (mitochondria) and their mutual correlationships. Mitochondria close to the nucleus (or in clustered cells) are observed to possess a lower degree of freedom in comparison to that at the cellular periphery (or isolated cells). In addition, the study demonstrates real-time observation and recording of the development and growth of all tracheal branches during the entire period ( $$\sim 95$$ ∼ 95 min) of embryonic development (Drosophila). The experimental results—with experiments being conducted in various and diversified biological specimens (Drosophila melanogaster, mouse embryo, and HeLa cells)—demonstrate that the study is of great scientific impact both from the aspects of technology and biological sciences.