title: Total internal reflection imaging of microorganism adhesion using an oil immersion objective.
abstract: In this paper, we report the results of total internal reflection microscopy investigations of the interaction of two types of microorganisms: Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli with substrates. It is shown that with this method qualitative and quantitative information about cells-substrate interaction can be obtained. One can easily make a difference between attached and non-attached as well as between dead and alive cells, and more generally can follow the dynamics of the process of cells' attachment to substrates. Quantitative information about the cell size and cell-substrate distance is obtained by using a model in which yeast cells and bacteria are approximated by ellipsoids, and multiple reflections of the evanescent waves between the cells and the substrate are neglected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Solid State Physics and Microelectronics, Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria. tvel@phys.uni-sofia.bg
authors.forename: Tzvetan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Velinov
authors.forename: Yana
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Asenovska
authors.forename: Dessislava
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marinkova
authors.forename: Lyubov
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yotova
authors.forename: Stoyanka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stoitsova
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bivolarska
authors.forename: Lyuba
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stavitskaya
mesh_terms: D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology*