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Imaging aquatic animal cells and associated pathogens by atomic force microscopy in air

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Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a sophisticated imaging tool with nanoscale resolution that is widely used in structural biology, cell biology, and material science, among other fields. However, to date it has rarely been applied to the study of aquatic animals, especially on one of the main cultured species, shrimp. One reason for this is that no shrimp cell line established until now, primary cell is fragile and difficult to be studied under AFM. In this study, we used AFM to image three different types of biological material from shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) in air, including hemocytes and two associated pathogens. Without obvious deformations when the cells were imaged in air and in the case for the haemocytes and the cells were fixed as well. The result suggests hydrophobic glass coverslips are a suitable substrate for adhesion of these samples. The method described here can be applied to the preparation of other fragile biological samples from aquatic animals for high-resolution analyses of host–pathogen interactions and other basic physiological processes.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31302233); Special Scientific Research Funds for Central Non-Profit Institutes, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute (Grant No. 20603022018014); the projects under Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, CAFS (Grant No: 2017HY-ZD1002) and China Agriculture Research System (Grant No. CARS-47).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Maricultural Organism Disease Control, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, No. 106 Nanjing Road, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Chen Li, Yan Liang, Menglin Xu, Hailiang Wang, Chongming Wang & Jie Huang

  2. Function Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Chen Li, Yan Liang, Hailiang Wang, Chongming Wang & Jie Huang

  3. Qingdao Key Laboratory of Mariculture Epidemiology and Biosecurity, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Chen Li, Yan Liang, Hailiang Wang, Chongming Wang & Jie Huang

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  1. Chen Li
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  2. Yan Liang
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  3. Menglin Xu
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  4. Hailiang Wang
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  5. Chongming Wang
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  6. Jie Huang
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Correspondence to Jie Huang.

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Li, C., Liang, Y., Xu, M. et al. Imaging aquatic animal cells and associated pathogens by atomic force microscopy in air. Biotechnol Lett 41, 1105–1110 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-019-02720-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-019-02720-3

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