Decoding the Chemical Language of Motile Bacteria by Using High-Throughput Microfluidic Assays.
Motile bacteria navigate chemical environments by using chemoreceptors. The output of these protein sensors is linked to motility machinery and enables bacteria to follow chemical gradients. Understanding the chemical specificity of different families of chemoreceptors is essential for predicting and controlling bacterial behavior in ecological niches, including symbiotic and pathogenic interactions with plants and mammals. The identification of chemical(s) recognized by specific families of receptors is limited by the low throughput and complexity of chemotaxis assays. To address this challenge, we developed a microfluidic-based chemotaxis assay that is quantitative, simple, and enables high-throughput measurements of bacterial response to different chemicals. Using the model bacterium Escherichia coli, we demonstrated a strategy for identifying molecules that activate chemoreceptors from a diverse compound library and for determining how global behavioral strategies are tuned to chemical environments.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 440 Henry Mall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
John A
JA
Crooks
Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 440 Henry Mall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
Matthew D
MD
Stilwell
Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 440 Henry Mall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
Piercen M
PM
Oliver
Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 440 Henry Mall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
Zhou
Z
Zhong
Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 440 Henry Mall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. weibel@biochem.wisc.edu.|Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. weibel@biochem.wisc.edu.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. weibel@biochem.wisc.edu.
Douglas B
DB
Weibel
D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000187:drug effects*; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques
D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes
chemoreceptors; chemotaxis; high-throughput assays; microfluidics