Award-winning Micro-photo of the Mosquito Heart (IMAGE)
Caption
The award-winning image uses fluorescent dyes to show the structure of the mosquito’s heart magnified 100 times. The green dye binds with muscle cells and shows the underlying musculature. The blue dye binds with cellular DNA and shows the presence of all the mosquito’s cells. The point of view of the image is top down. The mosquito’s body lies horizontally with its head to the left. The heart is the narrow tube that runs horizontally across the middle of the picture. The muscles that wind around the heart show up clearly in green. The triangular-shaped bundles perpendicular to the heart are called alary muscles and they hold the heart up against the mosquito’s back. Each of these bundles is centered on one of the heart valves, which do not show up clearly. The mosquito’s body consists of a series of segments and the broad strips of muscle that run parallel to the heart are “intersegmental” muscles that hold the segments together. The vertical muscles at the top and bottom of the image wrap around the mosquito’s body and are called “intrasegmental” muscles.
Credit
Jonas King, Hillyer Lab, Vanderbilt University
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License
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