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Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
Published on: October 29, 2016
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Adhesive interactions within microbial consortia can be differentiated at the single-cell level through expansion
Pu-Ting Dong1, Wenyuan Shi1, Xuesong He1
1Department of Microbiology, The American Dental Association Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA 02142.
Summary
Heterotropic expansion microscopy decrowds dense biofilms, enabling single-cell analysis of microbe-microbe adhesion. This novel technique visualizes interactions within complex multispecies communities, revealing adhesion dynamics.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Microbial Ecology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Microbe-microbe interactions are key to microbial community dynamics.
- Dense multispecies biofilms hinder single-cell visualization and interaction analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a method for visualizing and analyzing single-cell microbe-microbe interactions in dense biofilms.
- To investigate the forces governing cell-cell adhesion in multispecies biofilms.
Main Methods:
- Application of heterotropic expansion microscopy to "decrowd" bacterial cells in biofilms.
- Utilizing adhesion mutants to study specific protein interactions (e.g., RadD).
- Quantitative proximity analysis to measure cell separation and adhesion strength.
Main Results:
- Heterotropic expansion microscopy successfully separated bacterial cells in dense biofilms.
- Revealed the relative adhesion strengths in mono-, dual-, and three-species biofilms.
- Identified the role of *F. nucleatum* RadD in interspecies adhesion and examined *Schaalia-TM7* epibiont associations.
Conclusions:
- Heterotropic expansion microscopy is a powerful tool for analyzing single-cell interactions in complex microbial communities.
- The method enhances visualization and quantifies microbe-microbe adhesive forces.
- Provides new insights into the ecology and dynamics of biofilm formation.
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