JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments
Microbiology
0 views • 3:24 min • November 28th, 2025
Begin with a culture of Myxococcus xanthus, a slow-growing soil bacterium.
Inoculate a colony into a medium supplemented with an antibiotic.
The cells have been engineered to resist the antibiotic, ensuring that only the desired bacteria survive.
Transfer the suspension into a larger flask containing the medium and incubate with shaking to promote optimal growth.
Take a coverslip mounted on a metal frame, which provides mechanical support during imaging.
Dispense the bacterial culture onto it, then add fluorescent microspheres to serve as reference points for image alignment while acquiring multiple images.
Place a pre-warmed agarose pad containing the medium, then overlay it with a coverslip to maintain hydration.
Incubate to allow the cells to adhere to the agarose pad.
The pad supplies nutrients to the cells, enabling long-term live-cell imaging of cellular processes during proliferation in the slow-growing bacterium.
To begin, re-suspend a single M. xanthus colony in 500 microliters of 1% CTT, supplemented with antibiotics, in a sterile tube and transfer the entire suspension to a 50-milliliter Erlenmeyer flask containing five milliliters of 1% CTT. Prepare 1% agarose microscopy solutio
View the full transcript and gain access to thousands of scientific videos