Spiral-based microfluidic device for long-term time course imaging of Neurospora crassa with single nucleus resolution.

Real-time imaging of fluorescent reporters plays a critical role in elucidating fundamental molecular mechanisms including circadian rhythms in the model filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa. However, monitoring N. crassa for an extended period of time with single nucleus resolution is a technically challenging task due to hyphal growth that rapidly moves beyond a region of interest during microscopy experiments. In this report, we have proposed a two-dimensional spiral-based microfluidic platform and applied for monitoring the single-nucleus dynamics in N. crassa for long-term time course experiments.