Sub-10-nm imaging of nucleic acids using spectroscopic intrinsic-contrast photon-localization optical nanoscopy (SICLON)

Adam Eshein, Yue Li, Biqin Dong, Luay M. Almassalha, John E. Chandler, The Quyen Nguyen, Karl A. Hujsak, Vinayak P. Dravid, Cheng Sun, Hao F. Zhang, Vadim Backman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Elucidating chromatin structure in vitro requires resolution below 10 nm to visualize the mononucleosome has been an ongoing challenge. In this work, we achieve sub-10-nm imaging of nucleic acids via spectroscopic intrinsic-contrast photon-localization optical nanoscopy (SICLON) without the use of external labels. SICLON leverages two key innovations: using endogenous nucleotides as the emission source and a custom-made imaging system that can simultaneously record the position and optical spectra of emitting molecules. With a novel spectral regression algorithm that identifies the spectroscopic fingerprints of neighboring molecules that were previously indistinguishable, we demonstrate the utility of SICLON by visualizing unlabeled poly-nucleotides and linear single-stranded DNA fibers with a resolution of 6.2 nm.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5817-5820
Number of pages4
JournalOptics Letters
Volume43
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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