Johannes Liesche

　　College of Life Sciences, Center for Biomass Energy for semi-arid lands, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China

　　Many cellular structures are too small to be visualized with conventional light microscopes. Over the last 20 years, several methods have been developed to increase the resolution of light microscopes. These so-called super-resolution microscopes enable imaging of single molecules within living cells. In this talk, application examples from our work will be presented: the imaging of i) potato virus X replication complexes, and ii) cellulose fibers in the cell wall. Especially the super-resolution imaging of plant cell walls can serve as a good example of how this method will revolutionize our understanding of key processes in plant physiology in the future. However, challenges specific to plant cell imaging have, so far, limited the impact of super-resolution microscopy on plant science compared to medical science and cell biology, where it has already led to many breakthrough discoveries. The ongoing technical developments that will overcome these challenges will be discussed.