Single-cell analysis of cell viability after a biocide treatment unveils an absence of positive correlation between two commonly used viability markers.

ABSTRACT: Discrimination among viable/active or dead/inactive cells in a microbial community is a vital question to address issues on ecological microbiology or microbiological quality control. It is commonly assumed that metabolically active cells (ChemchromeV6 [CV6] procedure) correspond to viable cells (direct viable count procedure [DVC]), although this assumption has never been demonstrated and is therefore a matter of debate. Indeed, simultaneous determination of cell viability and metabolic activity has never been performed on the same cells. Here, we developed a microfluidic device to investigate the viability and the metabolic activity of Escherichia coli cells at single-cell level. Cells were immobilized in a flow chamber in which different solutions were sequentially injected according to

SUBMITTER: Ducret A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3584218 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature