Aberrations and adaptive optics in super-resolution microscopy

As one of the most powerful tools in the biological investigation of cellular structures and dynamic processes, fluorescence microscopy has undergone extraordinary developments in the past decades. The advent of super-resolution techniques has enabled fluorescence microscopy – or rather nanoscopy – to achieve nanoscale resolution in living specimens and unravelled the interior of cells with unprecedented detail. The methods employed in this expanding field of microscopy, however, are especially prone to the detrimental effects of optical aberrations. In this review, we discuss how super-resolution microscopy techniques based upon single-molecule switching, stimulated emission depletion and structured illumination each suffer from aberrations in different ways that are dependent upon intrinsic technical aspects. We discuss the use of adaptive optics as an effective means to overcome this problem.

[1]  M. Booth,et al.  Is phase-mask alignment aberrating your STED microscope? , 2015, Methods and applications in fluorescence.

[2]  Christian Eggeling,et al.  Diffraction-unlimited all-optical imaging and writing with a photochromic GFP , 2011, Nature.

[3]  Samuel J. Lord,et al.  Three-dimensional, single-molecule fluorescence imaging beyond the diffraction limit by using a double-helix point spread function , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[4]  Benjamin Thomas,et al.  Enhanced resolution through thick tissue with structured illumination and adaptive optics , 2015, Journal of biomedical optics.

[5]  J. Wilhjelm,et al.  Quantitative pupil analysis in stimulated emission depletion microscopy using phase retrieval. , 2012, Optics letters.

[6]  Michael D. Mason,et al.  Ultra-high resolution imaging by fluorescence photoactivation localization microscopy. , 2006, Biophysical journal.

[7]  M. Booth.  Adaptive optics in microscopy. , 2003, Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences.

[8]  Ying S Hu,et al.  Light-sheet Bayesian microscopy enables deep-cell super-resolution imaging of heterochromatin in live human embryonic stem cells , 2013, Optical Nanoscopy.

[9]  Alf Honigmann,et al.  Coaligned dual-channel STED nanoscopy and molecular diffusion analysis at 20 nm resolution. , 2013, Biophysical journal.

[10]  Ya Cheng,et al.  Investigation of the influence of the aberration induced by a plane interface on STED microscopy. , 2009, Optics express.

[11]  Erika Pastrana,et al.  Adaptive optics for biological imaging , 2011, Nature Methods.

[12]  Ignacio Izeddin,et al.  PSF shaping using adaptive optics for three-dimensional single-molecule super-resolution imaging and tracking. , 2012, Optics express.

[13]  John W Sedat,et al.  Effect of depth dependent spherical aberrations in 3D structured illumination microscopy. , 2012, Optics express.

[14]  C. Sheppard,et al.  Theory and practice of scanning optical microscopy , 1984 .

[15]  Andreas Schönle,et al.  Resolution scaling in STED microscopy. , 2008, Optics express.

[16]  Michael J Rust,et al.  Sub-diffraction-limit imaging by stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) , 2006, Nature Methods.

[17]  Martin J. Booth,et al.  Adaptive optics in microscopy , 2003, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[18]  Ya Cheng,et al.  Effects of primary aberrations on the fluorescence depletion patterns of STED microscopy. , 2010, Optics express.

[19]  S.W. HELL,et al.  A compact STED microscope providing 3D nanoscale resolution , 2009, Journal of microscopy.

[20]  M. Neil,et al.  Stimulated emission depletion microscopy with a supercontinuum source and fluorescence lifetime imaging. , 2008, Optics letters.

[21]  Martin J Booth,et al.  Auto-aligning stimulated emission depletion microscope using adaptive optics. , 2013, Optics letters.

[22]  M. Gu,et al.  Advanced Optical Imaging Theory , 1999 .

[23]  Alexander Jesacher,et al.  Axial super-localisation using rotating point spread functions shaped by polarisation-dependent phase modulation. , 2014, Optics express.

[24]  Mark A A Neil,et al.  3‐D stimulated emission depletion microscopy with programmable aberration correction , 2014, Journal of biophotonics.

[25]  S. Hell,et al.  Two-color nanoscopy of three-dimensional volumes by 4Pi detection of stochastically switched fluorophores , 2011, Nature Methods.

[26]  S. Hess,et al.  Three-dimensional sub–100 nm resolution fluorescence microscopy of thick samples , 2008, Nature Methods.

[27]  Brian Patton,et al.  Adaptive optics correction of specimen-induced aberrations in single-molecule switching microscopy , 2015 .

[28]  Ying S Hu,et al.  Single-molecule super-resolution light-sheet microscopy. , 2014, Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry.

[29]  Martin J. Booth,et al.  Adaptive optical microscopy: the ongoing quest for a perfect image , 2014, Light: Science & Applications.

[30]  Martin J Booth,et al.  Adaptive optics enables 3D STED microscopy in aberrating specimens. , 2012, Optics express.

[31]  J. Lippincott-Schwartz,et al.  Imaging Intracellular Fluorescent Proteins at Nanometer Resolution , 2006, Science.

[32]  Alexander Jesacher,et al.  Three-dimensional information from two-dimensional scans: a scanning microscope with postacquisition refocusing capability , 2015 .

[33]  T. Wilson,et al.  Adaptive optics for structured illumination microscopy. , 2008, Optics express.

[34]  D. Walburn,et al.  London/New York , 2009 .

[35]  J. Bewersdorf,et al.  Three dimensional single molecule localization using a phase retrieved pupil function. , 2013, Optics express.

[36]  S. Hell,et al.  Breaking the diffraction resolution limit by stimulated emission: stimulated-emission-depletion fluorescence microscopy. , 1994, Optics letters.

[37]  M. Gustafsson.  Surpassing the lateral resolution limit by a factor of two using structured illumination microscopy , 2000, Journal of microscopy.

[38]  M. Gustafsson,et al.  Three-dimensional resolution doubling in wide-field fluorescence microscopy by structured illumination. , 2008, Biophysical journal.

[39]  T. Wilson,et al.  Adaptive aberration correction in a confocal microscope , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[40]  J. Lippincott-Schwartz,et al.  Interferometric fluorescent super-resolution microscopy resolves 3D cellular ultrastructure , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.