1. Toward Absolute Molecular Numbers in DNA-PAINT
- Author
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Petra Schwille, Florian Stehr, Florian Schueder, Philipp Blumhardt, Johannes Stein, Ralf Jungmann, Jonas Mücksch, and Patrick Schueler
- Subjects
Materials science ,Analytical chemistry ,Bioengineering ,02 engineering and technology ,law.invention ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Optical microscope ,law ,Microscopy ,Molecule ,General Materials Science ,Total internal reflection ,Super-resolution microscopy ,Mechanical Engineering ,Resolution (electron density) ,Optical Imaging ,General Chemistry ,DNA ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Fluorescence ,Single Molecule Imaging ,Spectrometry, Fluorescence ,chemistry ,Microscopy, Fluorescence ,0210 nano-technology ,Algorithms - Abstract
[Image: see text] Single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) has revolutionized optical microscopy, extending resolution down to the level of individual molecules. However, the actual counting of molecules relies on preliminary knowledge of the blinking behavior of individual targets or on a calibration to a reference. In particular for biological applications, great care has to be taken because a plethora of factors influence the quality and applicability of calibration-dependent approaches to count targets in localization clusters particularly in SMLM data obtained from heterogeneous samples. Here, we present localization-based fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (lbFCS) as the first absolute molecular counting approach for DNA-points accumulation for imaging in nanoscale topography (PAINT) microscopy and, to our knowledge, for SMLM in general. We demonstrate that lbFCS overcomes the limitation of previous DNA-PAINT counting and allows the quantification of target molecules independent of the localization cluster density. In accordance with the promising results of our systematic proof-of-principle study on DNA origami structures as idealized targets, lbFCS could potentially also provide quantitative access to more challenging biological targets featuring heterogeneous cluster sizes in the future.
- Published
- 2019