The inducible chemical-genetic fluorescent marker FAST outperforms classical fluorescent proteins in the quantitative reporting of bacterial biofilm dynamics.

ABSTRACT: To increase our understanding of bacterial biofilm complexity, real- time quantitative analyses of the living community functions are required. To reach this goal, accurate fluorescent reporters are needed. In this paper, we used the classical fluorescent genetic reporters of the GFP family and demonstrated their limits in the context of a living biofilm. We showed that fluorescence signal saturated after only a few hours of growth and related this saturation to the reduction of oxygen concentration induced by bacterial consumption. This behaviour prevents the use of GFP-like fluorescent proteins for quantitative measurement in living biofilms. To overcome this limitation, we propose the use of a recently introduced small protein tag, FAST, which is fluorescent in the presence of an exogen

SUBMITTER: Monmeyran A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6037777 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature