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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Ocean Observation
Volume 12 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1531729
Expansion microscopy in Placozoa: improving resolution and preservation of fragile samples during marine expedition
Provisionally accepted- 1 Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology (RAS), Moscow, Russia
- 2 Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, St. Augustine, Florida, United States
Placozoa are small disc-shaped animals representing one of the early branching metazoan lineages with only a dozen cell types, fast effector reactions, and complex behaviors. The simplest organization and small cell sizes limit standard microscopy applications. Here, we implement a new methodology and protocol for expansion microscopy, improving both the resolution and preservation of fragile placozoans and kin. As a result, the proposed approaches can be applicable to a diversity of microscopic animals and their larvae with broad applicability for both laboratory and cross-disciplinary field research during long-term marine expeditions.
Keywords: Placozoa, Ctenophora, Trichoplax, expansion microscopy, Marine samples, Marine expedition
Received: 24 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Romanova, Frank and Moroz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Daria Y Romanova, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology (RAS), Moscow, Russia
Leonid L Moroz, Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, St. Augustine, 32080, Florida, United States
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