RC
Robert Cooper
  • Biocircuits Institute, niversity of California, San Diego, United States, United States,
Research fields
  • Microbiology
Microfluidics-Based Analysis of Contact-dependent Bacterial Interactions
Authors:  Robert Cooper, Lev Tsimring and Jeff Hasty, date: 08/20/2018, view: 6554, Q&A: 0
Bacteria in nature live in complex communities with multiple cell types and spatially-dependent interactions. Studying cells in well-mixed environments such as shaking culture tubes or flasks cannot capture these spatial dynamics, but cells growing in full-fledged biofilms are difficult to observe in real time. We present here a protocol for observing time-resolved, multi-species interactions at single-cell resolution. The protocol involves growing bacterial cells in a near monolayer in a microfluidic device. As a demonstration, we describe in particular observing the dynamic interactions between E. coli and Acinetobacter baylyi. In this case, the protocol is capable of observing both contact-dependent lysis of E. coli by A. baylyi via the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) and subsequent functional horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of genes from E. coli to A. baylyi.
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