Bacterial Co-Incubation Assay: A Fluorescence Microscopy-Based Technique to Visualize Intraspecific Bacterial Competition at the Single-Cell Level

Abstract

Source: Smith, S., et al., Quantification of Interbacterial Competition using Single-Cell Fluorescence Imaging. J. Vis. Exp. (2021).

This video demonstrates a fluorescence microscopy-based method to study bacterial competition at the single-cell level. This method provides insights into the structure and function of bacterial communities.

Protocol

1. Coincubate bacterial strains Choose two bacterial strains for single-cell bacterial competition assays. Here, two strains of V. fischeri are used: a target strain (ES11424) and an inhibitor strain (MJ1125) that is known to kill the target strain using the type VI secretion system on chromosome II (T6SS2)1, which is a contact-dependent killing mechanism. Transform strains with stable plasmids encoding genes for different fluorescent proteins (e.g., GFP or RFP) to visually distinguish stra…

Representative Results

Figure 1: Agarose pad preparation and slide setup for coincubation assays. (A) Setup for making 2% agarose pads. Five layers of lab tape (green) are wrapped around a cover slip at two points approximately 20 mm apart. Next, warm 2% agarose in marine Phosphate-Buffered Saline (yellow) is pipetted between the pieces of tape and immediately covered with a 25 mm2 cover sli…

Materials

1.5 mL Microcentrifuge tube	Fisher	05-408-129
10 uL single channel pipette
1000 uL single channel pipette
20 uL single channel pipette
200 uL single channel pipette
Agarose	Fisher	BP165-25	Low melting agarose
Cellvis 35 mm Dish	Fisher	NC0409658	#1.5 cover glass bottom
Chloramphenicol	Sigma	C0378	stock (20 mg/mL in Ethanol); final concentration in media (2 μg /mL LBS)
FIJI image analysis sofware	ImageJ	https://imagej.net/Fiji/Downloads	open-source software
Fisherbrand Cover Glasses: Circles	Fisher	12-545-81P	#1.5 cover glass; 12 mm diameter
Kanamycin Sulfate	Fisher	BP906-5	stock (100 mg/mL in water, filter sterilize); final concentration in media (1 μg/mL LBS)
Lens Cleaning Tissue Paper	Fisher	S24530
Petri Plates	Fisher	FB0875713	sterile with lid
Razor Blades	Fisher	S65921
Semi-micro Cuvettes	VWR	97000-586
Spectrophotometer
Thermo Scientific Gold Seal Plain Microscope Slides	Fisher	12-518-100B
Thermo Scientific Richard-Allan Scientific Cover Glass	Fisher	22-050-235	#1.5 cover glass, 25 mm2
Type F Immersion Oil	Fisher	NC0297589
Upright or inverted fluorescence microscope with camera and imaging software			Images in this article were acquired on a Nikon TI-2 inverted fluorescent microscope outfitted with an ORCA-Fusion Digital CMOS camera using NIS-Elements software.
Vortex
Water bath			Used to keep agarose warm prior to pipetting
LBS media
1M Tris Buffer (pH ~7.5)			50 mL 1 M stock buffer (62 mL HCl, 938 mL DI water, 121 g Trizma Base)
Agar Technical	Fisher	DF0812-17-9	15 g (Add only for plates)
DI water			950 mL
Sodium Chloride	Fisher	S640-3	20 g
Tryptone	Fisher	BP97265	10 g
Yeast Extract	Fisher	BP9727-2	5 g
mPBS (marine PBS)			Phosphate buffered saline with marine salts added; used for making agarose pad
10X PBS	Fisher	ICN1960454
Instant Ocean Sea Salt	Instant Ocean	SS1-160P	Adjust concentration to appropriate salinity; 20 psu used here
Sterile Vacuum Filter Units	Fisher	SCGVU01RE	Used to filter-sterilize mPBS
Vacuum pump			Used to filter-sterilize mPBS