Biofilms are surface-attached complex aggregates consisting of bacteria cells and extracellular polymeric substances. Cells in biofilms show strong resistance to antibiotics and immune-escape capabilities. Their motility and metabolic activities are quite different from those when they are in planktonic style. In recent years, applications of new image-capturing techniques together with new image-processing methods, have greatly advanced the development of bacterial studies. This review focuses on bacterial tracking techniques. We first present an overview of recent progress in applications of those techniques in biofilm research, especially in the areas of bacterial motility and biofilm regulation, including swimming, twitching, swarming and typical regulatory signaling pathways for biofilms. Then we give a prospect for future applications of bacterial tracking in other related microbial fields.
细菌生物被膜是粘附于物体表面的由细菌细胞及其胞外物质组成的复杂膜样物聚集体，具有很强的耐药性和免疫逃逸能力。生物被膜内细菌的代谢活性、运动状态等与浮游细菌有明显区别。近年来，先进的显微成像技术结合新型图像处理方法，在研究细菌的运动、生理等方面发挥了重要作用。本文围绕生物被膜，概述了细菌显微追踪技术在其研究中的应用。主要从细菌的运动方式和生物被膜形成过程的调控两方面出发，介绍了在单细胞水平上利用该技术研究生物被膜的进展，包括细菌的游泳、蹭行、群集运动和多种信号通路调控下生物被膜的形成过程等，并展望了该技术在生物被膜其他相关研究领域的应用前景。.
Keywords: bacterial tracking; biofilm; collective motion; motility; single cell level.