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A comparative study on the use of microscopy in pharmacology and cell biology research.

ABSTRACT: Microscopy is the main technique to visualize and study the structure and function of cells. The impact of optical and electron microscopy techniques is enormous in all fields of biomedical research. It is possible that different research areas rely on microscopy in diverse ways. Here, we analyzed comparatively the use of microscopy in pharmacology and cell biology, among other biomedical sciences fields. We collected data from articles published in several major journals in these fields. We analyzed the frequency of use of different optical and electron microscopy techniques: bright field, phase contrast, differential interference contrast, polarization, conventional fluorescence, confocal, live cell imaging, super resolution, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and cryoelectron microscopy. Our analysis showed that the use of microscopy has a distinctive pattern in each research area, and that nearly half of the articles from pharmacology journals did not use any microscopy method, compared to the use of microscopy in almost all the articles from cell biology journals. The most frequent microscopy methods in all the journals in all areas were bright field and fluorescence (conventional and confocal). Again, the pattern of use was different: while the most used microscopy methods in pharmacology were bright field and conventional fluorescence, in cell biology the most used methods were conventional and confocal fluorescence, and live cell imaging. We observed that the combination of different microscopy techniques was more frequent in cell biology, with up to 6 methods in the same article. To correlate the use of microscopy with the research theme of each article, we analyzed the proportion of microscopy figures with the use of cell culture. We analyzed comparatively the vocabulary of each biomedical sciences field, by the identification of the most frequent words in the articles. The collection of data described here shows a vast difference in the use of microscopy among different fields of biomedical sciences. The data presented here could be valuable in other scientific and educational contexts.

SUBMITTER: Reigoto AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7822289 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A comparative study on the use of microscopy in pharmacology and cell biology research.

Reigoto Agatha M AM Andrade Sarah A SA Seixas Marianna C R R MCRR Costa Manoel L ML Mermelstein Claudia C

PloS one 20210122 1

Microscopy is the main technique to visualize and study the structure and function of cells. The impact of optical and electron microscopy techniques is enormous in all fields of biomedical research. It is possible that different research areas rely on microscopy in diverse ways. Here, we analyzed comparatively the use of microscopy in pharmacology and cell biology, among other biomedical sciences fields. We collected data from articles published in several major journals in these fields. We ana ...[more]

PMID: 33481885

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Project description:Annexins are multifunctional, calcium-binding proteins found in organisms across all kingdoms. Most studies of annexins from single-celled eukaryotes have focused on the alpha-giardins, proteins assigned to the group E annexins, expressed by the diplomonad Giardia intestinalis. We have characterized the annexin gene family in another diplomonad parasite, Spironucleus salmonicida, by phylogenetic and experimental approaches. We constructed a comprehensive phylogeny of the diplomonad group E annexins and found that they are abundant across the group with frequent gene duplications and losses. The annexins of S. salmonicida were found to be related to alpha-giardins but with better-preserved type II Ca(2+) coordination sites. Two annexins were confirmed to bind phospholipids in a Ca(2+)-dependent fashion but with different specificities. Superresolution and confocal microscopy of epitope-tagged S. salmonicida annexins revealed localization to distinct parts of the cytoskeleton and membrane. The ultrastructural details of the localization of several annexins were determined by proximity labeling and transmission electron microscopy. Two annexins localize to a novel cytoskeletal structure in the anterior of the cell. Our results show that the annexin gene family is expanded in diplomonads and that these group E annexins are associated mostly with cytoskeletal and membrane structures. IMPORTANCE Annexins are proteins that associate with phospholipids in a Ca(2+)-dependent fashion. These proteins have been intensely studied in animals and plants because of their importance in diverse cellular processes, yet very little is known about annexins in single-celled eukaryotes, which represent the largest diversity of organisms. The human intestinal parasite Giardia intestinalis is known to have more annexins than humans, and they contribute to its pathogenic potential. In this study, we investigated the annexin complement in the salmon pathogen Spironucleus salmonicida, a relative of G. intestinalis. We found that S. salmonicida has a large repertoire of annexins and that the gene family has expanded separately across diplomonads, with members showing sequence diversity similar to that seen across kingdom-level groups such as plants and animals. S. salmonicida annexins are prominent components of the cytoskeleton and membrane. Two annexins are associated with a previously unrecognized structure in the anterior of the cell.

Dataset Information

A comparative study on the use of microscopy in pharmacology and cell biology research.

Publications

A comparative study on the use of microscopy in pharmacology and cell biology research.

Similar Datasets

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