Contact Area and Deformation of Escherichia coli Cells Adhered on a Cationic Surface.

ABSTRACT: When bacteria adhere to surfaces, the chemical and mechanical character of the cell-substrate interface guides cell function and the development of microcolonies and biofilms. Alternately on bactericidal surfaces, intimate contact is critical to biofilm prevention. The direct study of the buried cell-substrate interfaces at the heart of these behaviors is hindered by the small bacterial cell size and inaccessibility of the contact region. Here, we present a total internal reflectance fluorescence depletion approach to measure the size of the cell-substrate contact region and quantify the gap separation and curvature near the contact zone, providing an assessment of the shapes of the near-surface undersides of adhered bacterial cells. Resolution of the gap height is about 10%, down to a few

SUBMITTER: Xu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10685399 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature