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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Feb 21.
Published in final edited form as: Chem Soc Rev. 2013 Aug 22;43(4):1189–1200. doi: 10.1039/c3cs60208g

Figure 9.

Figure 9

A cartoon depiction of a zero mode waveguide (ZMW) being used to study bacterial translation initiation. Each waveguide represents a nanometer-scale reaction chamber and many thousands of ZMWs can be imaged simultaneously. The dimensions of the waveguide result in a great reduction in background fluorescence. Fluorescently labeled components (here, Cy3-fMet-tRNAfMet and Cy5-IF2) can be added in solution to near physiological concentrations without obstructing observation, thus enabling the study of translation at the single molecule level.