Key Area 1

(e) Microscopy

Bright field microscopy

Bright-field microscopy is commonly used to observe:

whole organisms
parts of organisms
thin sections of dissected tissue
individual cells

Fluorescence microscopy

Fluorescence microscopy uses specific fluorescent labels to bind to and visualise certain molecules or certain structures within cells or tissues.

In the image above, fluorescent markers have been used to stain DNA (blue), microtubules (green) and actin (red) to monitor the dynamic changes that occur during cell division.

Fluorescence Microscopy

Tissue extract from an Alzheimer's patient: Amyloid plaques (blue) and neurons (green) are easily visualised.

Visualisation of the cell cytoskeleton with actin (red), microtubules (green) and DNA (blue) clearly visible.

Fluorescently-labelled neural cell culture.

Microscopy activity

SSERC have a range of microscopy activities to refine your bright field microscopy technique. Click here to access their microscopy pages.

PPQ15

2016, Section 2, Question 2c.

Answer here.

Go to SCHOLAR "1.5 Microscopy" for further info.

You are now ready to move onto Topic 1, Key area 1f: Aseptic technique & cell culture

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