Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 15: Postersession III

BP 15.96: Poster

Tuesday, March 13, 2018, 14:00–16:00, Poster B

Probing the non-equilibrium dynamics of the centrosomes in early Drosophila melanogaster embryos using fluorescent carbon nanotubes — •Constantin D. C. Kohl¹, Zhiyi Lv², Jörg Großhans², and Christoph F. Schmidt¹ — ¹Drittes Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität, 37077 Göttingen, Germany — ²Institut für Entwicklungsbiochemie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

In this project, a novel imaging method using near-infrared-fluorescent, DNA-wrapped fluorescent carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is applied to capture and characterize the non-equilibrium centrosomal dynamics in syncytial D. melanogaster embryos. During synchronized mitosis, the nuclei arrange into a 2 D cortical layer during stage 9 to 13. We target CNTs to Kin-5 motor proteins which, in turn, co-localize with centrosomes attached to the nuclei during mitosis and interphase. Semiconducting CNTs are highly photostable, non-blinking and non-bleaching. Hence, CNTs are good probes for long-time tracking inside living organisms. To observe the near-infrared fluorescence of CNTs, we have built a setup enabling the simultaneous use of visible and infrared wide-field fluorescence microscopy and imaging of GFP tagged histones, in conjunction with infrared spectroscopy. We apply several methods to solubilize the hydrophobic CNTs in watery solutions and use biochemical linking methods to specifically target CNTs in the embryos. We superimpose fluorescent CNT signals on GFP labeled nuclei and present the dynamics of functionalized CNTs in wild-type D. melanogaster.