Quantification of Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation by Crystal Violet and Confocal Microscopy

Adam B Grossman; Dylan J Burgin; Kelly C Rice

doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-1550-8_9

Quantification of Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation by Crystal Violet and Confocal Microscopy

Methods Mol Biol. 2021:2341:69-78. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1550-8_9.

Authors

Adam B Grossman¹, Dylan J Burgin¹, Kelly C Rice²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, IFAS, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
² Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, IFAS, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. kcrice@ufl.edu.

PMID: 34264462
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1550-8_9

Abstract

Most Staphylococcus aureus strains can grow as a multicellular biofilm, a phenotype of utmost importance to clinical infections such as endocarditis, osteomyelitis, and implanted medical device infection. As biofilms are inherently more tolerant to the host immune system and antibiotics, understanding the S. aureus genes and regulatory circuits that contribute to biofilm development is an active and on-going field of research. This chapter details a high-throughput and standardized way to grow S. aureus biofilms using a classical microtiter plate assay. Biofilms can be quantified using crystal violet or by confocal microscopy imaging and COMSTAT analysis.

Keywords: Biofilm; COMSTAT; Confocal microscopy; Crystal violet; LIVE/DEAD stain.

MeSH terms

Bacteriological Techniques
Biofilms / growth & development*
Gentian Violet / pharmacology*
Microscopy, Confocal
Spectrophotometry
Staphylococcus aureus / physiology*

Substances

Gentian Violet