PSB Confocals 

The PSB features 5 confocal microscopes, ranging from standard devices to more advanced ones.  Depending on your experiment, one device will suit your need more than another.   Below are some guidelines for choosing the most suitable confocal. 

A main criteria is speed.
Whenever speed is crucial than the spinning disc is the best choice. Speed can be in time: imaging of fast events (below 1 sec), in space: large regions to be obtained by stitching and Z-stack, or a combination with multiple colours and Z-stack.
If speed is not crucial, than the other point scanners (Olympus FV1000, Zeiss 710, Leica SP8, Zeiss LSM 900) offers more flexibility. Every system has specific features: 
Leica SP8 is the most sensitive confocal in house and also allows selection of emission light on base of lifetime using LightGate, ideal for eliminating autofluorescence and reflection.  With one of the Hyd detectors (SMD Hyd) lifetime differences can be very easily and quickly visualized (FALCON, Fast Lifetime CONtrast).   On the other hand it has a much weaker laser for exciting the red fluorophores.
The Zeiss 900 confocal is the only confocal with a vertical setup, allowing to image a root while growing along the gravity vector. This vertical setup combined with a root tracking software (TipTracker and Zen Tracking) makes the system very interesting for tracking a root over a long period of time.  Keep in mind that this is mainly done with dry lenses (20x), and that the use of immersion objectives is not userfriendly in this setup.   
The Zeiss 710 confocal is a very good 'allround' confocal.  It has the advange over the Olympus confocal to be a bit more sensitive and it has a 25, 40 and 60x water lens.  This confocal does has a much stronger laser for exciting the red fluorophores, in contrast to the Leica SP8 confocal. Tiptracker, a software tool to be able to track your root over time, is also installed.  
The Olympus FV1000 allows imaging different positions in time with different acquisition parameters on a very easy way.   Also fluorescent lifetime imaging (FLIM) can be done with this system.  However, this confocal has only one water immersion correction lens: 63x whereas the other systems also have a 20 and 40 x water lens.

Confocal trainings for PSB members are organized by Evelien Mylle ([email protected]).  Training dates are consultable on the PSB intranet page. 

POINT LASER SCANNERS

LSM900 inverted

 FV1000 Olympus 

SP8X Leica

 LSM 710 Zeiss

SPINNING DISC LASER SCANNERS

Spinning disc Ultraview Perkin Elmer