{"title":"Bright individuals: Applications of fluorescent protein-based reporter systems in single-cell cellular microbiology.","authors":"Marc Schulte, Luisa Grotheer, Michael Hensel","doi":"10.1111/mmi.15227","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Activation and function of virulence functions of bacterial pathogens are highly dynamic in time and space, and can show considerable heterogeneity between individual cells in pathogen populations. To investigate the complex events in host-pathogen interactions, single cell analyses are required. Fluorescent proteins (FPs) are excellent tools to follow the fate of individual bacterial cells during infection, and can also be deployed to use the pathogen as a sensor for its specific environment in host cells or host organisms. This Resources describes design and applications of dual fluorescence reporters (DFR) in cellular microbiology. DFR feature constitutively expressed FPs for detection of bacterial cells, and FPs expressed by an environmentally regulated promoter for interrogation of niche-specific cues or nutritional parameters. Variations of the basic design allow the generation of DFR that can be used to analyze, on single cell level, bacterial proliferation during infection, subcellular localization of intracellular bacteria, stress response, or persister state. We describe basic considerations for DFR design and review recent applications of DFR in cellular microbiology.</p>","PeriodicalId":19006,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Microbiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Molecular Microbiology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mmi.15227","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/18 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Activation and function of virulence functions of bacterial pathogens are highly dynamic in time and space, and can show considerable heterogeneity between individual cells in pathogen populations. To investigate the complex events in host-pathogen interactions, single cell analyses are required. Fluorescent proteins (FPs) are excellent tools to follow the fate of individual bacterial cells during infection, and can also be deployed to use the pathogen as a sensor for its specific environment in host cells or host organisms. This Resources describes design and applications of dual fluorescence reporters (DFR) in cellular microbiology. DFR feature constitutively expressed FPs for detection of bacterial cells, and FPs expressed by an environmentally regulated promoter for interrogation of niche-specific cues or nutritional parameters. Variations of the basic design allow the generation of DFR that can be used to analyze, on single cell level, bacterial proliferation during infection, subcellular localization of intracellular bacteria, stress response, or persister state. We describe basic considerations for DFR design and review recent applications of DFR in cellular microbiology.
期刊介绍:
Molecular Microbiology, the leading primary journal in the microbial sciences, publishes molecular studies of Bacteria, Archaea, eukaryotic microorganisms, and their viruses.
Research papers should lead to a deeper understanding of the molecular principles underlying basic physiological processes or mechanisms. Appropriate topics include gene expression and regulation, pathogenicity and virulence, physiology and metabolism, synthesis of macromolecules (proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, polysaccharides, etc), cell biology and subcellular organization, membrane biogenesis and function, traffic and transport, cell-cell communication and signalling pathways, evolution and gene transfer. Articles focused on host responses (cellular or immunological) to pathogens or on microbial ecology should be directed to our sister journals Cellular Microbiology and Environmental Microbiology, respectively.