MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Greetings from Goulburn, NSW - where's that? Between Sydney and Canberra, Australia, where there are no microscope shops. Sigh...
The last time I used a good quality microscope was decades ago. It was only a loaner, so my nascent hobby languished for half a lifetime. If I could only adjust the eyepieces of my trinocular microscope, so that I didn't keep going cross eyed, I would be waist deep in microorganisms by now. Seriously considering the purchase of a 3D printer so that I can make the odds and ends that I can only buy online or not at all.
My goal is to study mitochondria. My AmScope compound microscope will magnify to x2500, which should be enough for what I need. When I'm not looking for mitochondria I'll be discovering what lives in the river that runs past my house, other than platypus, fish and endless birdlife. First I'll study and practice microscopy and discover what I've been missing for all these years. I look forward to sharing tips and tricks and the occasional hack to get the results I'm looking for. One day I may be able to return the favour and help other newbies.

Welcome to the forum, SShack!

Sounds like you have quite the selection for viewing in your neck of the woods. More power to you!

Welcome! It's hard to find microscopes in shops anywhere these days; but fortunately there are online options. Don't worry too much about the advertised magnification. 1000x is pretty much the maximum useful magnification that can be achieved with a light microscope, typically by using a 100x oil objective and a 10x eyepiece. Since I don't like bothering with oil, my highest magnification is generally 400x (40x objective with 10x eyepiece). You should be able to see the larger mitochondria, but not much detail.

Current academic research of mitochondria relies mostly on fluorescence microscopy, using mitochondria-specific stains (which are very expensive).

Greetings and welcome.

SShack wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:21 am

My goal is to study mitochondria.

May I ask why and what part of mitochondrial biology you would like to study? Usually that would involve some sort of fluorescence-based method to be able to differentiate them from other organelles. I once had the opportunity to work with a confocal laser scanning microscope looking at GFP-tagged mitochondria in Arabidopsis thaliana root hair cells (the goal was to see what would happen to them after proton gradient collapse triggered by certain chemicals). I was surprised to see that some mitochondria form toroids (doughnuts), see image below.

Thank you, Wes.
Try as I might I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for with mitochondria. My interest was piqued by photo's of mitochondrial fragmentation in "Long Covid", which is somewhat similar to M.E. (chronic fatigue) and several other systemic illnesses. Does mitochondrial fragmentation occur systemically in the other diseases? Does the fragmentation trigger apoptosis or does apoptosis cause fragmentation? This chicken-or-egg question led me down a rabbit hole that I thought might be answered (in part) with sufficient time and a decent microscope. As you suggested, I probably need a more specialised microscope. If that's the case, I'm sure I'll discover more rabbit holes that I can explore when I learn to drive my microscope properly. Practice, practice and some fun discoveries on the way. Thank you for your toroidal mitochondria photo. Who knew? I have much to learn.
Steve