See-Star: a versatile hydrogel-based protocol for clearing large, opaque and calcified marine invertebrates.

ABSTRACT: Studies of morphology and developmental patterning in adult stages of many invertebrates are hindered by opaque structures, such as shells, skeletal elements, and pigment granules that block or refract light and necessitate sectioning for observation of internal features. An inherent challenge in studies relying on surgical approaches is that cutting tissue is semi-destructive, and delicate structures, such as axonal processes within neural networks, are computationally challenging to reconstruct once disrupted. To address this problem, we developed See-Star, a hydrogel-based tissue clearing protocol to render the bodies of opaque and calcified invertebrates optically transparent while preserving their anatomy in an unperturbed state, facilitating molecular labeling and observation of inta

SUBMITTER: Clarke DN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11201320 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature