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. 2018 Nov 21;12:94. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2018.00094

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2

High-pressure freezing improves preservation of ultrastructure. (A) The dorsal cord of an adult prepared using the slow chemical fixation protocol (White et al., 1978). The DD motor neuron is making a neuromuscular junction to dorsal muscle cells. (B) The dorsal cord of an adult fixed using high-pressure freezing and imaged using TEM. The DD motor neuron is making a neuromuscular junction to dorsal muscle cells. (C) The ventral nerve cord of a chemically fixed first stage (L1) C. elegans larva (White et al., 1978). The DD axon makes a NMJ to the ventral muscle cell (M). (D) A TEM micrograph of the ventral nerve cord of a high-pressure frozen first stage larva (L1) at similar region, where DD makes a NMJ to the ventral muscle cell. The advent of high-pressure freezing allows better preserved neurite morphology, synapse structure, and extracellular space, facilitating connectomic and topological analyses of the C. elegans nervous system. Scale bar 1 μm. Panel (A) was reprinted with permission from White et al. (1978). Panel (C) a scan of the micrograph used in White et al. (1978), hosted by the WormImage Consortium (www.wormimage.org).