Microbial Nanoscopy: Breakthroughs, Challenges, and Opportunities

Studying the structure, properties, and interactions of microbial cells is key to understanding the functions of the microbiome. Recent advances in nanotechnology have offered new tools to probe microbes at the single-molecule and single-cell levels. In this issue of ACS Nano, Kumar et al. present an atomic force microscopy method that is capable of imaging the nanoscale organization of bacterial proteins in native, curved membranes. This study represents an important step forward in the development of nanoscopy techniques for analyzing biological systems with large curvature and vertical dimensions, such as membrane vesicles and bacterial cells.