title: Probing bacterial-fungal interactions at the single cell level.
abstract: Interactions between fungi and prokaryotes are abundant in many ecological systems. A wide variety of biomolecules regulate such interactions and many of them have found medicinal or biotechnological applications. However, studying a fungal-bacterial system at a cellular level is technically challenging. New microfluidic devices provided a platform for microscopic studies and for long-term, time-lapse experiments. Application of these novel tools revealed insights into the dynamic interactions between the basidiomycete Coprinopsis cinerea and the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Direct contact was mediated by polar attachment of bacteria to only a subset of fungal hyphae suggesting a differential competence of fungal hyphae and thus differentiation of hyphae within a mycelium. The fungicidal activity of B. subtilis was monitored at a cellular level and showed a novel mode of action on fungal hyphae.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland. andrew.demello@chem.ethz.ch.
authors.forename: Claire E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stöckli
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van Swaay
authors.forename: Jerica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sabotič
authors.forename: Pauli T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Kallio
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Künzler
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: deMello
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aebi
mesh_terms: D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D025301:Hyphae / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D059008:Time-Lapse Imaging