What are the cell structures that can be seen by submicroscopic and optical microscopes, respectively?
Microstructure refers to the structure that can be observed under an optical microscope.
For cells: the appearance and shape of cell wall, nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, chloroplast, Golgi apparatus, etc. can be directly observed under the light microscope, which belong to the microstructure;
Note that only the shape of the organelle can be seen, and the internal detailed structure is invisible. For example, the chloroplast can only see the green oval particles, and the grana inside is a submicroscopic structure.
Submicroscopic structure refers to the structure that can be observed under the electron microscope.
For cells: cell membranes, ribosomes, various membrane structures, and the internal detailed structures of various organelles are submicroscopic structures.
Therefore, chromosomes can be seen with high magnification (belonging to light microscopes, microscopic structures).
Chromatin cannot be seen, but must be seen under an electron microscope.
Chromatin is highly spiraled into chromosomes, which can be observed under a high-power microscope after being stained with basic dyes.
What is seen under the electron microscope is the sub-microscopic structure, and what is seen under the optical microscope is the microscopic structure. ), very few organelles (chloroplasts, stained mitochondria), and stained chromosomes, and electron microscopy can observe almost any structure in the cell.
The difference between light microscope and electron microscope is: light microscope can only see certain cell structures, such as cell wall, chloroplast, stained chromosomes, mitochondria, nucleus, etc., electron microscope can see the internal structure of organelles and other components such as ribosomes. small organelles. In summary, light microscopy sees the microscopic structure of cells, and electron microscopy sees submicroscopic structures.
