No.5（2002）13.New Microscopy for Nanoimaging

Yasuhito KINJO, Motoko KOYAMA, Makoto WATANABE, Henryk FIEDOROWICZ, Hiroyuki DAIDO,Etsuya YANASE, Sadao FUJII, Eiji Sato, Atsushi ITO and Kunio SHINOHARA

Two types of new microscopy, namely, X-ray contact microscopy (XRCM) in combination with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray projection microscopy (XRPM) using synchrotron radiation and zone plate optics were used to image the fine structures of human chromosomes. In the XRCM plus AFM system, location of X-ray images on a photoresist has become far easier than that with our previous method using transmission electron microscopy coupled with the replica method. In addition, the images obtained suggested that the conformation of chromatin fiber differs from the current textbook model regarding the architecture of a eukaryotic chromosome. X-ray images with high contrast of the specimens could be obtained with XRPM. The resolution of each microscopy was about 30 and 200-300 nm for XRCM plus AFM and XRPM, respectively.

Keywords
X-ray contact microscopy, X-ray projection microscopy, Atomic force microscopy, Fine structure, Chromosome

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