TY - JOUR
T1 - Mighty small
T2 - Observing and modeling individual microbes becomes big science
AU - Kreft, Jan Ulrich
AU - Plugge, Caroline M.
AU - Grimm, Volker
AU - Prats, Clara
AU - Leveau, Johan H J
AU - Banitz, Thomas
AU - Baines, Stephen
AU - Clark, James
AU - Ros, Alexandra
AU - Klapper, Isaac
AU - Topping, Chris J.
AU - Field, Anthony J.
AU - Schuler, Andrew
AU - Litchman, Elena
AU - Hellweger, Ferdi L.
PY - 2013/11/5
Y1 - 2013/11/5
N2 - Progress in microbiology has always been driven by technological advances, ever since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria by making an improved compound microscope. However, until very recently we have not been able to identify microbes and record their mostly invisible activities, such as nutrient consumption or toxin production on the level of the single cell, not even in the laboratory. This is now changing with the rapid rise of exciting new technologies for single-cell microbiology (1, 2), which enable microbiologists to do what plant and animal ecologists have been doing for a long time: observe who does what, when, where, and next to whom. Single cells taken from the environment can be identified and even their genomes sequenced. Ex situ, their size, elemental, and biochemical composition, as well as other characteristics can be measured with high-throughput and cells sorted accordingly. Even better, individual microbes can be observed in situ with a range of novel microscopic and spectroscopic methods, enabling localization, identification, or functional characterization of cells in a natural sample, combined with detecting uptake of labeled compounds. Alternatively, they can be placed into fabricated microfluidic environments, where they can be positioned, exposed to stimuli, monitored, and their interactions controlled “in microfluido.” By introducing genetically engineered reporter cells into a fabricated landscape or a microcosm taken from nature, their reproductive success or activity can be followed, or their sensing of their local environment recorded.
AB - Progress in microbiology has always been driven by technological advances, ever since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria by making an improved compound microscope. However, until very recently we have not been able to identify microbes and record their mostly invisible activities, such as nutrient consumption or toxin production on the level of the single cell, not even in the laboratory. This is now changing with the rapid rise of exciting new technologies for single-cell microbiology (1, 2), which enable microbiologists to do what plant and animal ecologists have been doing for a long time: observe who does what, when, where, and next to whom. Single cells taken from the environment can be identified and even their genomes sequenced. Ex situ, their size, elemental, and biochemical composition, as well as other characteristics can be measured with high-throughput and cells sorted accordingly. Even better, individual microbes can be observed in situ with a range of novel microscopic and spectroscopic methods, enabling localization, identification, or functional characterization of cells in a natural sample, combined with detecting uptake of labeled compounds. Alternatively, they can be placed into fabricated microfluidic environments, where they can be positioned, exposed to stimuli, monitored, and their interactions controlled “in microfluido.” By introducing genetically engineered reporter cells into a fabricated landscape or a microcosm taken from nature, their reproductive success or activity can be followed, or their sensing of their local environment recorded.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84887289464&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1317472110
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1317472110
M3 - Comment/debate
C2 - 24194530
AN - SCOPUS:84887289464
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 110
SP - 18027
EP - 18028
JO - National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings
JF - National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings
IS - 45
ER -