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Atomic force microscopy observation on nuclear reassembly in a cell-free system

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Cell-free system is interesting and useful for studying nuclear assembly in mitosis. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), which is a simple way for imaging fixed reassemble nuclei with high resolution, has not been used in the cell-free system. In this paper, we put forward an air-drying sample preparation for AFM. Using AFM, we observed nuclear reassembly process within 100 nm resolution in a cell-free system. As a result, we found that the images were artifact-free, and with higher resolution compared with fluorescent optical microscope images. Furthermore, the morphology of membrane vesicles was obtained clearly, and a dynamic change of morphology during the vesicles’ approaching to nuclear envelope was also observed, which is enlightened to understand the mechanism of nuclear envelope assembly.

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Correspondence to Zhaohui Zhang or Xiaowei Tang.

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Yang, N., Chen, Z., Zhang, Z. et al. Atomic force microscopy observation on nuclear reassembly in a cell-free system. Chin.Sci.Bull. 48, 2284–2286 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1360/03ww0086

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1360/03ww0086

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