When viewed with specialized microscopes, microbial
cells show an individual fluorescence pattern, or signature, that depends on
the mixture of biomolecules contained within the cells. That complex mixture,
with its telltale signature, in turn depends on the type of microbe and its
physiological state, such as whether it is growing or what it is consuming as a
food source.
University of Tsukuba researchers have developed a new
method, named CRIF (Confocal Reflection microscopy-assisted single-cell Innate
Fluorescence), to detect the fluorescence signatures of individual microbial
cells. The method is non-destructive, meaning the cells remain alive, and
allows cells to be studied in realistic three-dimensional environments.
Importantly, the new method can be used to view individual cells within
mixtures of different types of microbe, unlike many standard techniques that
work best with "pure" populations where the cells are all alike. The
team recently published their findings in Applied and Environmental
Microbiology.
The team went on to train computer models to read the
fluorescence signatures and distinguish different types of cells. The models
learned to recognize cells automatically, even when looking at different cells
with very similar shapes and sizes, and analyze the images for cell signatures
to identify the cells according to their type and physiological state.
"Our technique to recognize and track the innate
fluorescence signatures of each of the individual cells within
three-dimensional samples opens up exciting new opportunities to explore mixed
microbial populations, as found in natural environments," says
co-corresponding author Nobuhiko Nomura. "It will help researchers
understand how microbes grow and interact with each other in the real
world."
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Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology
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