Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 19, 2026
High-resolution Imaging of Nuclear Dynamics in Live Cells under Uniaxial Tensile Strain
Published on: June 2, 2019
Label-free and real-time imaging of dehydration-induced DNA conformational changes in cellular nucleus using second
1Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Photonics Technology, Key Laboratory of OptoElectronic Science and Technology for Medicine of Ministry of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, China.
Abstract:
Dehydration-induced DNA conformational changes have been probed for the first time with the use of second harmonic microscopy. Unlike conventional approaches, second harmonic microscopy provides a label-free and real-time approach to detect DNA conformational changes. Upon dehydration, cellular DNA undergoes a transition from B- to A-form, whereas cellular nuclei change from invisible to visible under second harmonic microscopy. These results showed that DNA is a second order nonlinear optical material. We further confirmed this by characterizing the nonlinear optical properties of extracted DNA from human cells. Our findings open a new path for SHG imaging. DNA can change its conformations under many circumstances. For example: normal cells turning into cancerous cells and drug molecules binding with DNA. Therefore, the detection of DNA conformational changes with second harmonic microscopy will be a useful tool in cancer therapy and new drug discovery.
