Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains

Summary

Bacteria may accumulate either detrimental or beneficial mutations during their lifetime. In a population of cells individuals that have accumulated beneficial mutations may rapidly outcompete their fellows. Here we present a simple procedure to visualize intraspecies competition in a bacterial cell population over time using fluorescently labeled individuals. 

Abstract

Many microorganisms such as bacteria proliferate extremely fast and the populations may reach high cell densities. Small fractions of cells in a population always have accumulated mutations that are either detrimental or beneficial for the cell. If the fitness effect of a mutation provides the subpopulation with a strong selective growth advantage, the individuals of this subpopulation may rapidly outcompete and even completely eliminate their immediate fellows. Thus, small genetic changes and selection-driven accumulation of cells that have acquired beneficial mutations may lead to a complete shift of the genotype of a cell population. Here we present a procedure to monitor the rapid clonal expansion and elimination of beneficial and detrimental mutations, respectively, in a bacterial cell population over time by cocultivation of fluorescently labeled individuals of the Gram-positive model bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The method is easy to perform and very illustrative to display intraspecies competition among the individuals in a bacterial cell population.

Introduction

Soil bacteria are usually endowed with flexible regulatory networks and broad metabolic capacities. Both features enable the cells to adjust their catabolic and anabolic pathways to compete with their fellows and other microorganisms for the nutrients, which are available in a given ecological niche¹. However, if the bacteria are unable to adapt to their environment other mechanisms may account for survival of a species. Indeed, as many bacteria proliferate fast and the populations can reach high cell densities subpopulations may have spontaneously accumulated beneficial mutations that provide the cells with a selective growth advantage and therefore increa....

Protocol

1. Preparation of Agar Plates, Culture Media, Cryostocks, and Precultures

1. Prepare growth media and required reagents (see table of materials and reagents).
2. Streak the B. subtilis strains (e.g. BP40 (rocG⁺ gudB^CR amyE::P_gudB-yfp) and BP52 (rocG⁺ gudB⁺ amyE::P_gudB-cfp) expressing one and two active GDHs, respectively)² that will be used in the competition experiment on SP medium agar plates to get single colonies. Incubate the plates overnight at 37 °C.
3. Take single colonies and inoc....

Results

The method described here was successfully applied to visualize intraspecies competition in a cell population consisting of B. subtilis strains that were labeled with the cfp and yfp genes encoding the fluorophores CFP and YFP, respectively. As shown in Figure 3, the method can be used to visualize intraspecies competition in a very illustrative manner. By spotting the samples on small areas, the clonal composition of the cell population was made visible at a glance. Although n.......

Discussion

Several methods have been developed to analyze competitive fitness of bacteria¹⁶. In many cases the bacteria were labeled with different antibiotic resistance cassettes¹⁷. Similar to our approach, labeling of the cells with antibiotic resistance cassettes allows the evaluation of competitive fitness of the bacteria during cocultivation under defined growth conditions. Moreover, this method can be used to determine competitive fitness of cells that differ from each other in a specific locus on the ch.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
(NH4)2SO4	Roth, Germany	3746
Agar	Difco, USA	214010
Ammonium ferric citrate (CAF)	Sigma-Aldrich, Germany	9714
CaCl2	Roth, Germany	5239
Glucose	Applichem, Germany	A3617
Glycerol	Roth, Germany	4043
K2HPO4•3H2O	Roth, Germany	6878
KCl	Applichem, Germany	A3582
KH2PO4	Roth, Germany	3904
KOH	Roth, Germany	6751
MgSO4•7H2O	Roth, Germany	P027
MnCl2	Roth, Germany	T881
MnSO4•4H2O	Merck Millipore, Germany	102786
NaCl	Roth, Germany	9265
Nutrient broth	Roth, Germany	X929
Potassium glutamate	Applichem, Germany	A3712
Tryptone	Roth, Germany	8952
Tryptophan	Applichem, Germany	A3445
Yeast extract	Roth, Germany	2363
1.5 ml Reaction tubes	Sarstedt, Germany	72,690,001
2.0 ml Reaction tubes	Sarstedt, Germany	72,691
15 ml Plastic tubes with screw cap	Sarstedt, Germany	62,554,001
Petri dishes	Sarstedt, Germany	82.1473
1.5 ml Polystyrene cuvettes	Sarstedt, Germany	67,742
15 ml Glass culture tubes	Brand, Germany	7790 22
100 ml Shake flasks with aluminium caps	Brand, Germany	928 24
Sterile 10 ml glass pipettes	Brand, Germany	278 23
Incubator (28 and 37 °C)	New Brunswick	M1282-0012
Standard pipette set (2-20 μl, 10-100 μl, 100-1,000 μl)	Eppendorf, Germany	4910 000.034, 4910 000.042,
Table top centrifuge for 1.5 and 2 ml reaction tubes	Thermo Scientific, Heraeus Fresco 21, Germany	75002425
Table top centrifuge for 15 ml plastic tubes	Heraeus Biofuge Primo R, Germany	75005440
Standard spectrophotometer	Amersham Biosciences Ultrospec 2100 pro, Germany	80-2112-21
Stereofluorescence microscope	Zeiss SteREO Lumar V12, Germany	495008-0009-000
Freezer (-20 and -80 °C)	-	-
Fridge (4 °C)	-	-
Autoclave	Zirbus, LTA 2x3x4, Germany	-
pH meter	pH-meter 766, Calimatic, Knick, Germany	766
Vortex	Vortex 3, IKA, Germany	3340000
Balance	CP2202S, Sartorius, Germany	replaced by
Black pen (permanent marker)	Staedler, Germany	317-9
Powerpoint program	Microsoft, USA	-
Office Excel program	Microsoft, USA	-	Program for data processing
Adobe Photoshop CS5	Adobe, USA	replaced by CS6, download	Computer program for image processing
Computer	PC or Mac	-
ZEN pro 2011 software for the stereofluorescence microscope	Zeiss, Germany	410135 1002 110	AxioCam MRc Rev. Obtained through Zeiss
Specific solution recipes
SP Medium
8 g Nutrient broth
0.25 mg MgSO4•7H2O
1 g KCl
15 g agar for solid SP medium			if required
add 1 L with H2O			autoclave for 20 min at 121 °C
1 ml CaCl2 (0.5 M), sterilized by filtration
1 ml MnCl2 (10 mM), sterilized by filtration
2 ml ammonium ferric citrate (CAF, 2.2 mg/ml), sterilized by filtration
LB Medium
10 g Tryptone
5 g Yeast extract
10 g NaCl
15 g agar for solid LB medium			if required
add 1 L with H2O			autoclave for 20 min at 121 °C
C-Glc Minimal Medium
200 ml 5 x C salts
10 ml L-Tryptophan (5 mg/ml), sterilized by filtration
10 ml ammonium ferric citrate (CAF, 2.2 mg/ml), sterilized by filtration
10 ml III’ salts
25 ml Glucose (20%)			autoclaved for 20 min at 121 °C
add 1 L with sterile H2O
CE-Glc Minimal Medium
200 ml 5 x C salts
10 ml L-Tryptophan (5 mg/ml), sterilized by filtration
10 ml ammonium ferric citrate (CAF, 2.2 mg/ml), sterilized by filtration
10 ml III’ salts
20 ml Glutamate (40%)
25 ml Glucose (20%), autoclaved for 20 min at 121 °C
add 1 L with sterile H2O
5 x C salts
20 g KH2PO4
80 g K2HPO4•3H2O
16.5 g (NH4)2SO4
add 1 L with sterile H2O			autoclave for 20 min at 121 °C
III’ salts
0.232 g MnSO4•4H2O
12.3 g MgSO4•7H2O
add 1 L with sterile H2O, autoclave for 20 min at 121 °C
40% Glutamate solution
200 g L-Glutamic acid
adjust the pH to 7.0 by adding approximately 80 g KOH
add 0.5 L with sterile H2O			autoclave for 20 min at 121 °C
0.9% Saline (NaCl) Solution
add 1 L with sterile H2O			autoclave for 20 min at 121 °C
50% Glycerol solution
295 ml Glycerol (87%)
add 0.5 L with sterile H2O			autoclave for 20 min at 121 °C
Bacteria (All strains are based on the Bacillus subtilis strain 168)
Bacillus subtilis BP40 (rocG+ gudBCR amyE::PgudB-yfp)	Laboratory strain collection
Bacillus subtilis BP41 (rocG+ gudBCR amyE::PgudB-cfp)
Bacillus subtilis BP52 (rocG+ gudB+ amyE::PgudB-cfp)
Bacillus subtilis BP156 (rocG+ gudB+ amyE::PgudB-yfp)