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"Drosophila Flight Muscles"

no. 20161212_001_muscle_focus

Caltech, CA

High speed exposure of a fly taken through the microscope in the photo above. Here you can see the bright green fluorescing muscles used by the fly to control its wing motion. In this fly, only the flight muscles express a genetically engineered protein called GCaMP, which fluoresces green in the presence of calcium ions. Because the concentration of calcium increases in muscles as they are activated, the fluorescence provides a direct measurement of the muscle activity.