Chapter 26 High-Resolution Microscopic Methods for the Analysis of Cellular Movements in Drosophila Embryos

Electronic, digital-image acquisition offers a facile approach for obtaining data on the morphology of living or fixed embryos. The quality of the electronically derived output approaches that available with standard photographic methods and digitally processed images can reveal aspects of morphology not visible in standard microscope images. Moreover, these strategies avoid time-consuming efforts in the darkroom and speed turn-around time between image generation by the microscope and their output as finished prints, slides, or video tapes. Rapid advances in the power of personal computers and substantial decreases in their cost ensure that these strategies will become an integral part of biological image manipulation and processing.