资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

We introduce MINFLUX, a concept for localizing photon emitters in space. By probing the emitter with a local intensity minimum of excitation light, MINFLUX minimizes the fluorescence photons needed for high localization precision. In our experiments, 22 times fewer fluorescence photons are required as compared to popular centroid localization. In superresolutionmicroscopy, MINFLUXattained similar to 1-nanometer precision, resolving molecules only 6 nanometers apart. MINFLUX tracking of single fluorescent proteins increased the temporal resolution and the number of localizations per trace by a factor of 100, as demonstrated with diffusing 30S ribosomal subunits in living Escherichia coli. As conceptual limits have not been reached, we expect this localization modality to break new ground for observing the dynamics, distribution, and structure of macromolecules in living cells and beyond.