STORM imaging of mitochondrial dynamics using a vicinal-dithiol-proteins-targeted probe

Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) is a promising method for the visualization of ultra-fine mitochondrial structures. However, this approach is limited to monitoring dynamic intracellular events owing to its low temporal resolution. We developed a new strategy to capture mitochondrial dynamics using a compressed sensing STORM algorithm following raw data pre-treatments by a noise-corrected principal component analysis and K-factor image factorization. Using STORM microscopy with a vicinal-dithiol-proteins targeting probe, visualizing mitochondrial dynamics was attainable with spatial and temporal resolutions of 45 nm and 0.8 s, notably, dynamic mitochondrial tubulation retraction of ~746 nm in 1.2 s was monitored. The labeled conjugate was observed as clusters (radii, ~90 nm) distributed on the outer mitochondrial membranes, not yet reported as far as we know. This strategy is promising for the quantitative analysis of intracellular behaviors below the optical diffraction limit.