New generations of microscopy have opened up a dazzling world that exists in the interior of new cells. But even the best of the new technology has had a trouble of recording the depth of cellular structures – until now.

Yale University researchers, employing some tricks of powerful astronomy telescopes, have discovered a way to view in three dimensions tiny structures within cells such as mitochondria, the cellular power packs, and nuclear membranes that envelope DNA. In accompanying movie, researchers recorded three-dimensional representations of 19 paternal and maternal mouse chromosomes by using colored fluorescent tags attached to proteins that bind them together.

The research paper was published online July 7 in the journal Cell.

Credit: Yale University

More information: Fang Huang et al. Ultra-High Resolution 3D Imaging of Whole Cells, Cell (2016).

Journal information: Cell

Provided by Yale University