A New Age of Advanced Volume Microscopy for Protists

Volume microscopy comprises a broad set of techniques that are indispensable in the characterization of a cell's three-dimensional architecture. In the last few decades, major technological breakthroughs in the fields of light and electron microscopy have spurred a revolution in cell biology. This trend has been accelerating in recent years as the equipment and techniques required to perform advanced microscopy are now widespread and accessible to many core facilities around the world. These powerful tools will advance the protistology field by revealing the 3D architecture of the vast majority of microbial eukaryotes that remain unexplored. In this review, we provide an overview of both historical and emerging volume microscopy technologies, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of different imaging techniques, with emphasis on how the field of protistology can make informed decisions to investigate protist form and function in three dimensions.