Expansion Microscopy in Parasitology: Exploring Parasite Structure, Function, and Host Interactions

Understanding how parasites are structurally organized, and how that organization changes across their life cycle and during interaction with host cells and tissues, is fundamental to parasitology. Parasite biology spans an enormous range of scales, from single organelles to whole-cell architecture to the interface between parasite and host, and capturing this complexity requires imaging tools that can resolve fine structural detail without losing biological context.Conventional light microscopy has long been limited by the diffraction barrier, making it difficult to resolve the nanoscale features of parasite cytoskeletons, organelles, and invasion machinery. Electron microscopy and super-resolution techniques can reach the necessary resolution, but they often demand specialized equipment, extensive sample processing, or come with limited compatibility with standard fluorescence labeling, putting them out of reach for many labs working across diverse and often neglected parasite systems.Expansion microscopy (ExM) offers a more accessible route to nanoscale resolution by physically expanding fixed biological samples rather than requiring specialized optics. Recent developments such as ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM) and pan-expansion microscopy (pan-ExM) have extended this approach to an increasingly broad range of parasite systems and biological questions. This Research Topic brings together methodological advances and biological discoveries enabled by ExM across diverse parasite models, encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration among parasitologists, cell biologists, structural biologists, and imaging scientists.We welcome original research articles, reviews, mini reviews, perspectives, and hypothesis-driven articles that use expansion microscopy to advance our understanding of parasite biology.Specific themes of interest include, but are not limited to:• Cell division and replication: Use of ExM to resolve mitotic and replicative machinery across parasite life cycle stages.• Cytoskeletal and organelle architecture: Studies mapping cytoskeletal organization and organelle positioning during differentiation and developmental transitions.• Motility and invasion: ExM-based investigation of the structural basis of parasite motility, host cell invasion, and intracellular growth.• Host–parasite interfaces: Spatial organization of infection niches and the structural basis of parasite–host cell and tissue interactions.• Methodological innovation: Improvements in sample preparation, labeling strategies, and imaging workflows for challenging or under-studied parasite systems.• Correlative and computational approaches: Integration of ExM with molecular biology, super-resolution microscopy, electron microscopy, or computational image analysis.• Quantitative imaging: Development of quantitative frameworks for analyzing ExM data across parasite species and life cycle stages. Topic editors: Ramiro Tomasina, Benjamin Liffner, Eloïse Bertiaux Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85109/expansion-microscopy-in-parasitology-exploring-parasite-structure-function-and-host-interactions