Microfluidic techniques for separation of bacterial cells via taxis

Jyoti P Gurung; Murat Gel; Matthew A B Baker

doi:10.15698/mic2020.03.710

Microfluidic techniques for separation of bacterial cells via taxis

Microb Cell. 2020 Jan 15;7(3):66-79. doi: 10.15698/mic2020.03.710.

Authors

Jyoti P Gurung¹, Murat Gel^{2

3}, Matthew A B Baker^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science, UNSW Sydney.
² CSIRO Manufacturing, Clayton.
³ CSIRO Future Science Platform for Synthetic Biology.

Abstract

The microbial environment is typically within a fluid and the key processes happen at the microscopic scale where viscosity dominates over inertial forces. Microfluidic tools are thus well suited to study microbial motility because they offer precise control of spatial structures and are ideal for the generation of laminar fluid flows with low Reynolds numbers at microbial lengthscales. These tools have been used in combination with microscopy platforms to visualise and study various microbial taxes. These include establishing concentration and temperature gradients to influence motility via chemotaxis and thermotaxis, or controlling the surrounding microenvironment to influence rheotaxis, magnetotaxis, and phototaxis. Improvements in microfluidic technology have allowed fine separation of cells based on subtle differences in motility traits and have applications in synthetic biology, directed evolution, and applied medical microbiology.

Keywords: chemotaxis; flagellar motor; microfluidics; motility; thermotaxis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

MG and MABB would like to acknowledge the support of the CSIRO Future Science Platform in Synthetic Biology Project Grant. MABB is further supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant DP190100497 and UNSW Scientia Research Fellowship.