What are the cell structures that can be seen under an optical microscope?
For cells, the appearance of the cell wall, nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, chloroplasts, Golgi apparatus, etc. can be directly observed under an optical microscope and belong to the microscopic structure;
Note that only the shape of organelles can be seen, and the detailed internal structure cannot be seen For example, chloroplasts can only be seen as green oval shaped particles, and the basal grains inside belong to submicroscopic structures
Submicroscopic structure refers to the structure that can be observed under an electron microscope
For cells, the cell membrane, ribosomes, various membrane structures, and detailed internal structures of various organelles belong to submicroscopic structures
So, high-power microscopes (belonging to optical microscopes, microscopic structures) can see chromosomes
And chromatin cannot be seen, it can be seen under an electron microscope
Chromatin highly helices into chromosomes, which can be observed under high magnification after staining with alkaline dyes
Under an electron microscope, submicroscopic structures are observed, while under an optical microscope, microscopic structures are observed. The magnification of an electron microscope is much greater than that of an optical microscope. An optical microscope can only see the basic structure of a cell (cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus), a very small number of organelles (chloroplasts, stained mitochondria), and stained chromosomes, while an electron microscope can observe almost any structure inside the cell.
The difference between optical microscopy and electron microscopy is that optical microscopy can only see certain cellular structures, such as cell walls, chloroplasts, stained chromosomes, mitochondria, nuclei, etc., while electron microscopy can see the internal structure of organelles and smaller organelles such as ribosomes. In short, optical microscopes can observe the microscopic structure of cells, while electron microscopes can reveal submicroscopic structures.
