Enabling technologies in super-resolution fluorescence microscopy: reporters, labeling, and methods of measurement

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy continues to experience a period of extraordinary development. New instrumentation and fluorescent labeling strategies provide access to molecular and cellular processes that occur on length scales ranging from nanometers to millimeters and on time scales ranging from milliseconds to hours. At the shortest length scales, single-molecule imaging methods now allow measurement of nanoscale localization, motion, and binding kinetics of individual biomolecules. At cellular and intercellular length scales, super-resolution microscopy allows structural and functional imaging of individual cells in tissues and even in whole animals. Here, we review recent advances that have enabled entirely new types of experiments and greatly potentiated existing technologies.