Credit: Meerts
This image, shot via confocal laser scanning microscope, shows how the gluten proteins can be colored with a fluorescent dye so the team can observe the dough structure as an assembly of starch particles within a gluten matrix. The fluorescent dye attaches to gluten proteins so that these light up. Starch particles, on the other hand, remain dark and are easily recognized as the dark spots in a light gluten matrix.