Health biotechnology in China--reawakening of a giant

Source: Morita, M., et al. Bacterial Cell Culture at the Single-cell Level Inside Giant Vesicles. J. Vis. Exp. (2019).This video demonstrates a method for culturing and observing individual bacterial cells encapsulated inside giant vesicles anchored to a supported lipid bilayer. The system enables stable, long-term imaging of single-cell growth dynamics in a confined, physiologically relevant...

This article introduces a simple method for expeditious production of giant unilamellar vesicles with encapsulated cytoskeletal proteins. The method proves to be useful for bottom-up reconstitution of cytoskeletal structures in confinement and cytoskeleton-membrane interactions.

Many proteins in the cell sense and induce membrane curvature. We describe a method to pull membrane nanotubes from lipid vesicles to study the interaction of proteins or any curvature-active molecule with curved membranes in...

We present a protocol to rapidly form giant polymer vesicles (pGVs). Briefly, polymer solutions are dehydrated on dried agarose films adhered to coverslips. Rehydration of the polymer films results in rapid formation of pGVs. This method greatly advances the preparation of synthetic giant vesicles for direct applications in biomimetic...

The Giant Fiber System is a simple neuronal circuit of adult Drosophila melanogaster containing the largest neurons in the fly. We describe the protocol for monitoring synaptic transmission through this pathway by recording post synaptic potentials in dorsal longitudinal (DLM) and tergotrochanteral (TTM) muscles following direct stimulation of the Giant Fiber...

Crop cultivation has a long history in human civilization, with records showing the cultivation of cereal plants beginning at around 8000 BC. This early plant breeding was developed primarily to provide a steady supply of food.