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Updated: Nov 23, 2025

Preparing Lamellae from Vitreous Biological Samples Using a Dual-Beam Scanning Electron Microscope for Cryo-Electron Tomography
Published on: August 5, 2021
Protocol for Extraction and Electron Microscopy Visualization of Lipids in Viburnum tinus Fruit Using
Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong1, Silvia Vignolini2, Yu Ogawa3
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Abstract:
We recently reported that Viburnum tinus fruit generates its metallic blue color using globular lipid inclusions embedded in its epicarpal cell walls. This protocol describes steps to visualize the lipidic nature of the nanostructure using cryo-ultramicrotomy, chloroform extraction, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging. This method is useful to localize and characterize novel lipidic nanostructures embedded in both plant and animal tissues at the TEM resolution. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Middleton et al. (2020).
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Cryo-electron Microscopy
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