3d images of microbes

[amharreld]

I have been looking for a repository of 3d images of bacteria, viruses, etc, but haven't had too much luck. As such, I was wondering if anyone on this forum had any recommendations? The preference being images from electron microscope photography, but I'll take anything at this point, really.

I am wanting to make as accurate as possible 3d models for a project I am planning to undertake. The project will (hopefully) include a myriad of different species from many different 'walks of life.' Though, twitching a flagella around really doesn't count as walking and viruses are in that half-way point between living and non-living so . . . Yea, "different motilities of life & quasi-life?"

Again, if you've got a (preferably) online repository that you can recommend, I'd appreciate it.

PS I did try a quick search to make certain there are no other posts on the subject, but didn't find anything.

[CharonY]

I have taken quite a few images of bacteria using SEM and AFM, but I do not about a real depository. You should be aware that EM and similar images provide a very artificial view on the bacteria and fixing processes create a lot of artifacts and are by definition static. There are these nice 3D images in false colors, but in truth there is often not more detail that you can reliably extract from them as things that you already know (e.g. rough morphology etc.).

 

If you are interested in motility you are much better of looking for literature that show videos (e.g. with fluorescently tagged key proteins). Classic images that you should find easily are the Che-dependent chemotactic movement of E. coli , swarming motility in Myxococcus etc. Alternatively you could take a look at different flagellation. There are of course also EM images of those but they tend to be 2D. See example here . AFM is another method, but they usually have lateral elongation and if cells are fixed, certain artifacts pop up again.

 

You should also know that viruses have no motility to begin with, they rely on passive transport. What I am trying to say is that depending on what precisely you want to show, EM images may not be quite the thing to go for as images, especially 3D slices are somewhat tricky to interpret.

[amharreld]

Thanks for your reply CharonY. The intent is to find 3D images to base my models off of. I figure I can grab extra details elsewhere, to 'fill' the images with and make them come to life. Then again, I am just starting this project and this might be the wrong way to approach the process.

As for the motility thing . . . That was just me trying to be funny. Sorry for the confusion.

[CharonY]

Well if you can neglect detail structures (which are incredibly hard to figure out) then it is fairly easy by looking at the description. I.e. you can essentially make a rod (basically an elongated tic-tac add a peritrichous constellation of flagella et voila, E. coli. There are illustrations of the bacteria around that are usually easier to interpret.

For viruses there are reconstructions based on X-ray chrystallographic studies you could look at. In your place I would check out well-studied model bacteria and viruses and check out textbooks (or maybe just google) them. There are probably decent representations that you could copy (rather than trying to interpret raw images).