Live Cell Fluorescence Microscopy to Observe Essential Processes During Microbial Cell Growth

Summary

Understanding the function of essential processes in bacteria is challenging. Fluorescence microscopy with target-specific dyes can provide key insights into microbial cell growth and cell cycle progression. Here, Agrobacterium tumefaciens is used as a model bacterium to highlight methods for live cell imaging for characterization of essential processes.

Abstract

Core cellular processes such as DNA replication and segregation, protein synthesis, cell wall biosynthesis, and cell division rely on the function of proteins which are essential for bacterial survival. A series of target-specific dyes can be used as probes to better understand these processes. Staining with lipophilic dyes enables the observation of membrane structure, visualization of lipid microdomains, and detection of membrane blebs. Use of fluorescent-d-amino acids (FDAAs) to probe the sites of peptidoglycan biosynthesis can indicate potential defects in cell wall biogenesis or cell growth patterning. Finally, nucleic acid stains can indicate possible defects in DNA replication or chromosome segregation. Cyanine DNA stains label living cells and are suitable for time-lapse microscopy enabling real-time observations of nucleoid morphology during cell growth. Protocols for cell labeling can be applied to protein depletion mutants to identify defects in membrane structure, cell wall biogenesis, or chromosome segregation. Furthermore, time-lapse microscopy can be used to monitor morphological changes as an essential protein is removed and can provide additional insights into protein function. For example, the depletion of essential cell division proteins results in filamentation or branching, whereas the depletion of cell growth proteins may cause cells to become shorter or rounder. Here, protocols for cell growth, target-specific labeling, and time-lapse microscopy are provided for the bacterial plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Together, target-specific dyes and time-lapse microscopy enable characterization of essential processes in A. tumefaciens. Finally, the protocols provided can be readily modified to probe essential processes in other bacteria.

Introduction

Progression through the bacterial cell cycle requires the coordination of many processes including membrane and cell wall biosynthesis, DNA replication and segregation, and cell division. To fully understand the complexity of bacterial cell biology, it is necessary to study these essential events; however, this is a non-trivial task since cell viability is compromised when key components of these pathways are mutagenized. Epifluorescence microscopy coupled with target-specific dyes is a powerful approach to probe these essential processes in wildtype and mutant bacterial strains.

Peptidoglycan-specific dyes include fluorescent antibiotics (....

Protocol

1. Growth of A. tumefaciens Strains

1. Culturing A. tumefaciens strains
   1. Use a sterile wooden stick or pipet tip to inoculate 1 mL of ATGN growth media (see materials list for the recipe) with a single colony of the desired strain.
      NOTE: For A. tumefaciens depletion strains, the ATGN should contain 1 mM IPTG as an inducer to maintain biosynthesis of the essential protein.
   2. Grow the A. tumefaciens strains overnight in ATGN at 28 °C with shaking at 225 rpm.
   3. Measure the optical density of the cells at 600 nm (OD₆₀₀) using a spectrophotometer. Dilute the cell cul....

Results

Target-specific labeling of wildtype A. tumefaciens cells
In order to illustrate that cell morphology is not impacted by the wash steps or treatment with 1% DMSO (which is used to dilute the fluorescent dyes), cells were imaged directly from culture (Figure 2A, far left panel), after washing the cells by centrifugation as described in 1.2 (Figure 2A, left panel), or .......

Discussion

This protocol contains a series of procedures for the investigation of A. tumefaciens wildtype, mutant, and depletion strains. It is worth noting that all of the procedures listed in the protocol section can be readily adapted for other bacterial strains with additional modifications to account for growth media, temperatures, and growth rates.

The use of target-specific dyes is a valuable tool for providing a detailed characterization of cell-cycle events in bacterial cells. Here, pep.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Bacterial Strains
Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58	ATCC	33970	Watson B, Currier TC, Gordon MP, Chilton MD, Nester EW. 1975. Plasmid required for virulence of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. J Bacteriol 123:255-264.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58ΔtetRA::mini-Tn7T-GM-Ptac-ctrA ΔctrA			Figueroa-Cuilan W, Daniel JJ, Howell M, Sulaiman A, Brown PJB. 2016. Mini-Tn7 insertion in an artificial attTn7 site enables depeltion of the essentail master regulator CtrA in the phytopathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Appl Environ Microbiol. 82:5015-5025.
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Media Components
ATGN Minimal Medium			To 1 L of sterilized water add 50 ml 20X Buffer, 50 ml 20X Salts, 12.5 ml 40% glucose. For plates, add 15 g Bacto Agar to 1 L of water and autoclave. Cool to 55 °C and add 50 ml 20X Buffer, 50 ml 20X Salts, 12.5 ml 40% glucose.
20X AT Buffer			Add 214 g/L KH2PO4 to water and adjust pH to 7.0 with sodium hydroxide. Autoclave.
NaOH	Fisher BioReagents	BP359
KH2PO4	Fisher Chemical	P288
20X AT Salts			Add 40 g/L (NH4)2SO4, 3.2 g/L MgSO4•7H2O, 0.2 g/L CaCl2•2H2O, and 0.024 g/L MnSO4•H2O to water. Autoclave.
(NH4)2SO4	Fisher Chemical	A701
MgSO4•7H2O	Fisher BioReagents	BP213
CaCl2•2H2O	Fisher BioReagents	BP510
MnSO4•H2O	Fisher Chemical	M114
Glucose	Fisher Chemical	D16	Prepare 40% stock in water. Filter sterilize.
Bacto Agar	Fisher BioReagents	BP1423	Add 15 g to 1 L of water when preparing plates.
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Optional Media Additives
Kanamycin	GoldBio	K-120	Prepare as a 100 mg/ml stock solution in water and filter sterilize. Use at final concentration of 200 µg/ml.
IPTG	GoldBio	I2481C5	Prepare as a 1 M stock solution in water and filter sterilize. Use at final concentration of 1 mM as needed for induction.
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Microscopy Materials
Microscope Slides	Fisherbrand	12-550D	25 X 75 X 1.0 mm. Clean with Sparkle glass cleaner.
Microscope Cover Glass	Fisherbrand	12-541-B	22 X 22 mm. No. 1.5. Clean with Sparkle glass cleaner.
Sparkle Glass Cleaner	Home Depot	203261385	Ammonia and alcohol free.
Ultra Pure Agarose	Invitrogen	16500-100	Add to water, PBS, or media to a final concentration of 1 - 1.5%. Melt in microwave and place on 70 C
PBS	Fisher BioReagents	BP399500	10X solution to be diluted to 1X with sterile water.
Parafilm	Bemis	PM-999	Laboratory film used as gasket in agarose pad preparation.
VALAP			Add equal weights of lanolin, parafin wax, and petroleum jelly to a conical tube. Heat tube in 70 °C dry, bead or water bath to melt and mix. Apply VALAP while still molten.
Lanolin Butter	SAAQIN	SQ-LAB-R1
Petroleum Jelly	Target Corp.	06-17644
Paraffin Wax	Crafty Candles	263012
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Target-specific dyes
DMSO	Fisher BioReagents	BP231-1	Use to dilute stock solutions of dyes as needed.
FDAAs (NADA, HADA,TADA)			FDAAs can be synthesized or acquired through agreement with Mike VanNieuwenhze (Indiana University). Prepare 100 mM stock solution in DMSO. Use at a final concentration of 5 mM.
DAPI	ThermoFisher Scientific	62247	Prepare 1 mg/ml stock solution in DMSO. Use at final concentration of 1 µg/ml.
SYTOX Orange Nucleic Acid Stain	Invitrogen	S11368	Stock concentration is 5 mM in DMSO. Use at final concentration of 5 µM.
FM4-64	Invitrogen	T3166	Prepare 8 mg/ml stock solution in DMSO. Use at final concentration of 8 µg/ml.
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Equipment
Dry bath	Sheldon Manufacturing, Inc.	52120-200
Metallic thermal beads	Lab Armor	42370-002
Epifluorescence microscope equipped with an EMCDD camera			Nikon Eclipse TiE equipped with a QImaging Rolera em-c2 1K electron-multiplying charge-coupled-device (EMCCD) camera is used in this work.