Revealing planktonic ultrastructural diversity with Expansion Microscopy.

The cellular physiology of microbial eukaryotic communities in the ocean remain largely unknown, as well as the impact of climate change on their ecology. In PlanExM we are coupling ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM) to fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for species identification and the characterisation of cellular ultrastructure across mixed marine samples and key species drawn from TREC and the European culture collections. Plugging the gap between standard confocal imaging and EM techniques, we aim to create an atlas of native eukaryotic cellular biodiversity with unprecedented 3D spatial resolution, with a long-term view to assess the repercussions of climate change.

Collaborators

Dudin Group, EPLF Lausanne

Guichard and Hamel Group, University of Geneva

Schwab team, EMBL Heidelberg

Saka group, EMBL Heidelberg