Flow cytometry as a rapid analytical tool to determine physiological responses to changing O2 and iron concentration by Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense strain MSR-1

Abstract

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are a diverse group of bacteria that synthesise magnetosomes, magnetic membrane-bound nanoparticles that have a variety of diagnostic, clinical and biotechnological applications. We present the development of rapid methods using flow cytometry to characterize several aspects of the physiology of the commonly-used MTB Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1. Flow cytometry is an optical technique that rapidly measures characteristics of individual bacteria within a culture, thereby allowing determination of population heterogeneity and also permitting direct analysis of bacteria. Scatter measurements were used to measure and compare bacterial size, shape and morphology. Membrane permeability and polarization were measured using the dyes propidium iodide and bis-(1,3-dibutylbarbituric acid) trimethine oxonol to determine the viability and ‘health’ of bacteria. Dyes were also used to determine changes in concentration of intracellular free iron and polyhydroxylakanoate (PHA), a bacterial energy storage polymer. These tools were then used to characterize the responses of MTB to different O2 concentrations and iron-sufficient or iron-limited growth. Rapid analysis of MTB physiology will allow development of bioprocesses for the production of magnetosomes, and will increase understanding of this fascinating and useful group of bacteria.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13414-z
Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI)
Additional Information: Copyright: The authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Funding: 4th call ERA-IB programme, with funding from the UK Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Bacteriology ,Industrial microbiology ,Nanobiotechnology
Publication ISSN: 2045-2322
Last Modified: 25 Mar 2024 08:23
Date Deposited: 20 Oct 2017 08:10
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.nat ... 598-017-13414-z (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2017-10-13
Accepted Date: 2017-09-21
Authors: Fernandez-Castane, Alfred (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-2572-7797)
Li, Hong
Thomas, Owen R.T.
Overton, Tim W.

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