Conly L. Rieder and Alexey Khodjakov are the authors of, Mitosis Through the Microscope: Advances in Seeing Inside Live Dividing Cells, a timeline of the methods used to view mitosis.
The methods employed to view mitosis has evolved over the years. In the 1940's Walther Flemming proposed and undertook the process which involved the cells in different stages of mitosis being preserved and dyed to produce contrast between the components in the cell. Flemming discovered that mitosis and its components involved were essentially the same in all somatic cells.
The viewing of mitosis was able to be more closely viewed in the 1950's when Frits Zernike developed phase contrast along with polarization and differential interference contrast. These processes allowed the living mitosis cells to be examined allowing the spindles within the cell to be viewed which confirmed their existence.
In the 1960's the electron microscope was introduced. This then provided a closer look at the dead cells in stages of division. The higher resolution of the cell components allowed the discovery of the microtubles (MT) which make up the spindles in the cell. It was found that the MTs form the spindles by combining after the polymerization of the protein subunits (tubulin). It was also found that the MT components which made up the spindle arms from the poles could grow and shrink, which explained the ability of the spindles to search for the chromotids.
Over 20 years passed before the next major advance was employed. Video-Enhanced Light Microscopy allowed the entire mitosis process was recorded and enhanced digitally. This full process could then be time lapsed to show the entire division from start to finish. This allowed the membrane split, which occurs after the daughter nuclei are established, to be vi wed more closely.
Fluorescence Microscopy was the next step in the processes history. This involved the actual cell emitting the light to be viewed after it was micro injected with the fluorescent dye. These dyes were then developed in proteins which could bind to particular amino-acid sequences allowing components to be contrasted differently allowing movement of individual spindles etc. to be followed.
Throughout the last 50 years these advances in technology have greatly increased our knowledge of how mitosis eventuates to the daughter cells.
Reference:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;300/5616/91?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=microscope&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
By Max Michael 42002219
