title: Single cell profiling of surface carbohydrates on Bacillus cereus.
abstract: Cell surface carbohydrates are important to various bacterial activities and functions. It is well known that different types of Bacillus display heterogeneity of surface carbohydrate compositions, but detection of their presence, quantitation and estimation of variation at the single cell level have not been previously solved. Here, using atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based recognition force mapping coupled with lectin probes, the specific carbohydrate distributions of N-acetylglucosamine and mannose/glucose were detected, mapped and quantified on single B. cereus surfaces at the nanoscale across the entire cell. Further, the changes of the surface carbohydrate compositions from the vegetative cell to spore were shown. These results demonstrate AFM-based 'recognition force mapping' as a versatile platform to quantitatively detect and spatially map key bacterial surface biomarkers (such as carbohydrate compositions), and monitor in situ changes in surface biochemical properties during intracellular activities at the single cell level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA.
authors.forename: Congzhou
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Ehrhardt
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA vyadavalli@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Vamsi K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Yadavalli
mesh_terms: D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism*; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial
keywords: Bacillus cereus; atomic force microscopy; lectin–carbohydrate interaction; surface analysis