A Quick Note on Preparing Bacteria for SEM

Extract

Questions have appeared on the microscopy listserver about how to prepare bacteria for SEM. This is an easy problem to solve, the greatest difficulty being preserving flagellae or pili. There are several references in basic EM texts, but briefly the bacteria can be treated as if they are small tissue samples, or negative staining samples for TEM. Details like of time in solutions, transition series, etc. will depend on the particular bacteria under study, and some trial and error will likely be needed. The procedures given here should give a reasonable starting point.