Bio:
2013 Ph.D., Environmental Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
2007 M.Phil., Marine Plankton Ecology, Xiamen University, China.
2003 B.Sc., Marine Biology, Xiamen University, China.
Abstract:
Coral research to address how symbiosis is established and disrupted resulting in coral bleaching and reef degradation is in need of innovative techniques that enable observation of in situ 3-D distribution and dynamics of the endosymbionts and the physiologies of both symbiotic partners. Here we develop a method combining tissue-clearing (TC) technique with light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) and obtain 3D imaging of coral holobiont at single-cell resolution. This method provides unprecedented quantitative information of endosymbiont abundance and distribution. The protocol is also amenable for probing of physiological conditions such as cell proliferation and apoptosis when coupled with function-specific fluorescent labeling. This TC-LSFM approach should prove a valuable tool to marine biologists for obtaining more accurate and in-depth data while demanding less coral sample and sample processing procedure, and to many other biologists as well working on other organisms.
