Of microscopes and microbes; novel applications of optical microscopy to microbiology Open Access

Abstract

The development of optical microscopy has been traditionally driven by the needs of eukaryotic cell biology. Therefore, there are a number of unmet requirements for the application of advanced microscopy techniques to the field of microbiology. Conventional techniques, such as widefield epi-fluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy, are common-place in most laboratories, however these methods have trade-offs in terms of their attainable resolution and limited imaging volume. Here we present the application of several optical microscopy methods with the aim addressing the unmet needs of the field; increasing spatial resolution and sampling volume. We demonstrate the use of Interference Reflection Microscopy (IRM) for investigating the morphology and gliding motility of Myxococcus xanthus. This label-free technique provides super-resolution in the axial plane where changes in cell shape on the order of 100 nm can be detected in live cells. Using IRM we show novel insights into the gliding behaviour of these bacteria. We also present the application of the Mesolens to microbiology. The Mesolens is a large optical microscope with the unique combination of a low magnification and a high numerical aperture which results in an imaging volume >100 mm 3 with isotropic sub-cellular resolution. We demonstrate the use of the Mesolens to image live bacterial communities at multiple spatial scales simultaneously and offer new insights for bacterial community dynamics and biofilm architecture. Our work details novel applications of advanced microscopy to the field, and in doing so fills the technology gap which has previously restricted the study of complex microbial behaviours.

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/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.ac2019.po0398
2019-04-08
2024-03-28
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http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.ac2019.po0398
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