Issue 16, 2011

Microfluidic device for analyzing preferential chemotaxis and chemoreceptor sensitivity of bacterial cells toward carbon sources

Abstract

We present a novel microfluidic device that enables high sensitive analyses of the chemotactic response of motile bacterial cells (Escherichia coli) that swim toward a preferred nutrient by sorting and concentrating them. The device consists of the Y-shaped microchannel that has been widely used in chemotaxis studies to attract cells toward a high concentration and a concentrator array integrated with arrowhead-shaped ratchet structures beside the main microchannel to trap and accumulate them. Since the number of accumulated cells in the concentrator array continuously increases with time, the device makes it possible to increase the sensitivity of detecting chemotactic responses of the cells about 10 times greater than Y-shaped channel devices in 60 min. In addition, the device can characterize the relative chemotactic sensitivity of chemoreceptors to chemoeffectors by comparing the number of cells in the concentrator array at different distances from the channel junction. Since the device allows the analysis of both the chemotactic responses and the sensitivity of chemoreceptors with high resolution, we believe that not only can the device be broadly used for various microbial chemotaxis assays but it also can further the advancement of microbiology and even synthetic biology.

Graphical abstract: Microfluidic device for analyzing preferential chemotaxis and chemoreceptor sensitivity of bacterial cells toward carbon sources

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Apr 2011
Accepted
28 May 2011
First published
29 Jun 2011

Analyst, 2011,136, 3238-3243

Microfluidic device for analyzing preferential chemotaxis and chemoreceptor sensitivity of bacterial cells toward carbon sources

M. Kim, S. H. Kim, S. K. Lee and T. Kim, Analyst, 2011, 136, 3238 DOI: 10.1039/C1AN15308K

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