Name: live-cell fluorescence microscopy to investigate subcellular protein localization and cell morphology changes in bacteria
Uploaded: 2019-11-23T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Live-Cell Fluorescence Microscopy to Investigate Subcellular Protein Localization and Cell Morphology Changes in Bacteria at JoVE.com

We thank our lab members for their comments on this article. This work was funded by a start-up grant from the University of South Florida (PE).

1. General growth conditions
<ol>
	<li>Inoculate 2 mL of appropriate growth medium supplemented with antibiotics (where required) with a single colony of the strain(s) to be imaged. Incubate these seed cultures overnight at 22 &#176;C in a shaking incubator. 
	NOTE: The specific bacterial growth conditions used in this article are provided under the representative results section.</li>
	<li>Dilute overnight cultures 1:20 in fresh media in a 125 mL flask, supplement with antibiotics (where required).</li>
	<li>Grow...

<ol>
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Microscopy has remained a mainstay in studies pertaining to microbial organisms. Given their micron-scale cell size, single-cell level studies have traditionally relied on electron microscopy (EM). Although EM has become quite a powerful technique in recent years, it has its own intrinsic limitations in addition to limited user access16. Improvements in fluorescence microscopy techniques and development of different fluorescent probes, such as FDAA3, have provided microbial...

The field of bacterial cell biology has been significantly enhanced by recent advancements in microscopy techniques1,2. Among other instruments, microscopes that are capable of conducting timelapse fluorescence microscopy experiments remain a valuable tool. Investigators can monitor various physiological events in real-time using fluorescent proteins such as, green fluorescent protein (GFP)-based transcriptional and translational reporter fusions, fluorescent D-amino acids (FDAA)3, or use other stains for labeling the cell wall, membrane and DNA. It is therefore of no surprise that fluorescence microscopy remains popular among microbial cell biologists. In addition to simply showing the end phenotypes, providing information as to how the observed phenotypes arise using timelapse microscopy could add significant value to the findings and potentially offer clues as to what cellular processes are being targeted by potential drug candidates4.
The protocols to conduct high-resolution imaging using a fully motorized, inverted, wide-field fluorescence microscope (see the Table of Materials) are provided in this article. These protocols could be adapted to suit the needs of other fluorescence microscopes that are capable of conducting timelapse microscopy. Although the software discussed here corresponds to the specific manufacturer-supplied software as indicated in the Table of Materials, software commonly supplied by other microscope manufacturers or the freely available ImageJ5, have equivalent tools for analyzing microscopy data. For conditions where timelapse is not conducive, time-course experiments could be conducted as described in this article. The protocols described here provide a detailed guide to study the phenotypic changes in two different bacterial species: B. subtilis and S. aureus. See Table 1 for strains used.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Agarose</td>
			<td>Fisher BioReagents</td>
			<td>BP160-100</td>
			<td>Molecular Biology Grade - Low EEO</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DAPI</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>D3571</td>
			<td>Microscopy</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FM4-64</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>T3166</td>
			<td>Microscopy</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glass bottom dish</td>
			<td>MatTek</td>
			<td>P35G-1.5-14-C</td>
			<td>Microscopy</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>IPTG</td>
			<td>Fisher BioReagents</td>
			<td>BP1755-10</td>
			<td>Dioxane-free</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microscope</td>
			<td>GE</td>
			<td>DeltaVision Elite</td>
			<td>Customized Olympus IX-71 Inverted Microscope Stand; Custom Illumination Tower and Transmitted Light Illuminator Module. Objectives: PLAPON 60X (N.A. 1.42, WD 0.15 mm); OLY 100X OIL (N.A. 1.4, WD 0.12 mm); DIC Prism Nomarski for 100X Objective; CoolSnap HQ2 camera; SSI Assembly 7-color; Environmental control chamber - opaque.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PC190723</td>
			<td>MilliporeSigma</td>
			<td>3445805MG</td>
			<td>FtsZ inhibitor</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SoftWorx</td>
			<td>GE</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Manufacturer-supplied imaging software</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

live-cell fluorescence microscopy to investigate subcellular protein localization and cell morphology changes in bacteria

Investigations of factors influencing cell division and cell shape in bacteria are commonly performed in conjunction with high-resolution fluorescence microscopy as observations made at a population level may not truly reflect what occurs at a single cell level. Live-cell timelapse microscopy allows investigators to monitor the changes in cell division or cell morphology which provide valuable insights regarding subcellular localization of proteins and timing of gene expression, as it happens, to potentially aid in answering important biological questions. Here, we describe our protocol to monitor phenotypic changes in Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus using a high-resolution deconvolution microscope. The objective of this report is to provide a simple and clear protocol that can be adopted by other investigators interested in conducting fluorescence microscopy experiments to study different biological processes in bacteria as well as other organisms.

GpsB phenotypes 
Previously we have shown that Sa-GpsB is an essential protein as depletion of GpsB using an antisense RNA results in cell lysis9. Here we describe how the emergence of various cell division phenotypes and changes in protein localization could be captured using the timelapse microscopy protocol described in this article. For this purpose, S. aureus strains RB143 [SH1000 harboring pEPSA5 (empty vector)] and GGS8 [SH1000 harboring pGG59 (P...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Live-Cell Fluorescence Microscopy to Investigate Subcellular Protein Localization and Cell Morphology Changes in Bacteria at JoVE.com

Live-Cell Fluorescence Microscopy to Investigate Subcellular Protein Localization and Cell Morphology Changes in Bacteria

This article provides a step-by-step guide to investigate protein subcellular localization dynamics and to monitor morphological changes using high-resolution fluorescence microscopy in Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus.

Investigations of factors influencing cell division and cell shape in bacteria are commonly performed in conjunction with high-resolution fluorescence ...

This protocol facilitates the direct observation of various phenotypic changes at a single-cell level and allows the continuous monitoring of protein localization and gene expression timing. The main advantage of fluorescence microscopy is that it is a straightforward method for monitoring various biological processes, such as cell division and cell morphology changes in live cells. Be sure to pay particular attention to the sample preparation protocol and to explore the microscope software to be able to locate the settings and options listed in this protocol.A visual representation of this protocol is critical because it allows users to watch and learn the significant steps of the technique as they set up their own experiments. Begin by labeling a five to 50-microliter aliquot of the cell culture of interest with an appropriate membrane staining dye and adding five microliters of the stained bacterial cells onto a cover slip on the bottom of a 35-milliliter glass bottom culture dish. Place an 11-millimeter diameter agarose slab over the sample and gently tap to make sure the slab is flat against the cover slip.Then add approximately five microliters of water around the cover slip to prevent the agarose pad from drying and allow the culture dish to equilibrate to the temperature inside the incubation chamber of a high-resolution deconvolution microscope for 15 to 20 minutes. To image the sample, use the coarse adjustment focus knob to make sure that the objective is fully lowered before initializing the microscope within the microscope software. Place a drop of 1.517 refractive index oil into the 100x oil immersion objective, and transfer the glass bottom dish containing the sample into the metal housing coffin.Gently slide the dish into the stage clamp, and use the coarse adjustment knob to raise the objective until the oil makes contact with the glass bottom of the dish. Use the eyepiece and the fine adjustment knob to bring the sample into focus, and switch to Camera Mode. In the imaging software on the Resolve 3D window, select the Design/Run Experiment icon.A new dialog box will appear entitled Design/Run Experiment. Open the Design and Sectioning tabs in the dialog box to set the number of Z stacks and the sample thickness. To measure the thickness of the cells in the sample, incrementally adjust the Z-plane using the up and down arrows in the Resolve 3D dialog box, making where the cells go out-of-focus as the upper and lower limits for the Image Acquisition.After adjusting the Percent Transmission of the Light Intensity and the duration of the Exposure for the individual selected channels in the Resolve 3D dialog box, click Point List to open the Points List. In the Design and Time Lapse tabs, select the Time Lapse checkbox and enter the time lapse parameters. Select the Visit Point list option, and enter the points to be imaged in the text box, separating the points by commas or hyphens for complete sequences.Then edit file names and file locations in the Run tab and select Play in the Begin Experiment dialog box to start the experiment. At the end of the analysis, open the RAW image files of interest in an appropriate deconvolution program, and select the Process tab and Deconvolve. Perform any manual background noise subtraction and brightness contrast adjustment in any or all wavelength channels as necessary before saving the image as a TIFF file.For cell length quantification, open the deconvoluted image files in the manufacturer supplied software or in free imaging software, such as ImageJ, and open the Tool tab. Then select Measure Distances and left-click the start and end points on the desired image file to measure the cell length. For fluorescent signal quantification, select Data Inspector.Draw a box with the Column/Row option set to the specific dimension of interest, and select the area with the signal to be quantified. The addition of xylose to induce a GGS 8 strain results in a six-cell phenotype. While empty vector controls appear similar to control cells grown in the absence of inducer.Overproduction of staph aureus gpsB disrupts cell division in B.subtilis as measured by time lapse microscopy and cell length quantification. In addition, the localization patterns of FtsZ or one of the proteins associated with this protein can be used a reporter to study and/or identify novel antimicrobial compounds through the time lapse imaging and cell length quantification. Be sure to use an oil with the appropriate refractive index as the refractive index may change depending on the temperature used for the imaging.Deconvolution can be performed if the user wishes to remove out-of-focus noise, and data analysis involving fluorescent signal quantification and cell length and width measurements can also be performed.

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