A Microfluidic Approach for Quantitative Study of Spatial Heterogeneity in Bacterial Biofilms.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial biofilms play essential roles in ecological environments and in human health. The spatial heterogeneity of biofilms is crucial to their resistance and collective behavior, while quantitative analysis of these biofilm-specific features is limited. Here, a microfluidic approach is developed to address this issue. Through a special design of microfluidic chamber and spatially controllable bacteria seeding, biofilms are cultivated with customized semi-2D structure, which enables quantitative measurements of spatially heterogeneous features with time-lapse microscopy. The advantages of the proposed method are demonstrated via two examples on biofilm homeostasis and stress response, respectively, where the functionally important spatiotemporal dynamics is delineated. In homeostasis, it

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11936032 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature