Microfluidic Tools for Probing Fungal-Microbial Interactions at the Cellular Level.

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Soil Science
• Ecology

Background:

• Filamentous fungi are crucial soil inhabitants, driving decomposition and nutrient cycling.
• Soil's opaque nature presents challenges for studying cellular-level fungal interactions with other microbes.
• Understanding these interactions is vital for soil ecosystem dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce novel microfluidic platforms for studying fungal-microbial interactions.
• To demonstrate the capability of these tools in observing interactions at high resolution.
• To highlight the accessibility and translatability of these technologies for microbiology research.

Main Methods:

• Development and application of two microfluidic platforms.
• Controlled observation of bacterial-fungal and fungal-fungal interactions within microchannels.
• Monitoring interactions under defined physico-chemical conditions.

Main Results:

• High-resolution temporal and spatial monitoring of fungal-microbial interactions.
• Observation of previously uncharacterized fungal-fungal antagonisms.
• Detailed visualization of bacterial polar attachment to fungal hyphae.

Conclusions:

• Microfluidic tools provide unprecedented insights into soil fungal interactions.
• These platforms offer a user-friendly and translatable technology for microbiology labs.
• The study reveals novel biological insights into microbial community dynamics in soil.