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Physiology and Growth |
Molecular Microbial Ecology Group, Department of Microbiology, Technical University of Denmark, Building 301, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark1
Biofilm Imaging Facility, Center for Environmental Biotechnology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37932-2575, USA2
Author for correspondence: Søren Molin. Tel: +45 4525 2513. Fax: +45 4588 7328. e-mail: soeren.molin{at}biocentrum.dtu.dk
Use of green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a molecular reporter is restricted by several environmental factors, such as its requirement for oxygen in the development of the fluorophore, and its poor fluorescence at low pH. There are conflicting data on these limitations, however, and systematic studies to assess the importance of these factors for growing bacterial cultures are lacking. In the present study, homogeneous expression of the gfpmut3* gene directed by a synthetic constitutive lactococcal promoter was demonstrated in batch cultures and in biofilms of Streptococcus gordonii DL1. A lower limit of oxygen concentration for maturation of the GFP fluorophore was determined: fluorescence was emitted at 0·1 p.p.m. dissolved oxygen (in conventionally prepared anaerobic media lacking reducing agents), whereas no fluorescence was detected in the presence of 0·025 p.p.m. dissolved oxygen (obtained by addition of L-cysteine as reducing agent). When an anaerobically grown (non-fluorescent) >50 µm thick biofilm was shifted to aerobic conditions, fluorescence could be detected within 4 min, reaching a maximum over the next 16 min. It was not possible to detect any fluorescence gradients (lateral or vertical) within the >50 µm thick biofilm, and fluorescence development after the shift to aerobic conditions occurred throughout the biofilm (even at the substratum). This suggests that oxygen gradients, which might result in reduced GFP fluorescence, did not exist in the >50 µm thick biofilm of this organism. Production of lactic acid and the subsequent acidification in batch cultures of S. gordonii DL1 led to a decrease in fluorescence intensity. However, severe pH reduction was prevented when the bacterium was grown as a biofilm in a flowcell, and a homogeneous distribution of a strong fluorescence signal was observed. These findings show that GFP can be applied to studies of oxygen-tolerant anaerobic bacteria, that densely packed, flowcell-grown biofilms of S. gordonii do not develop oxygen gradients inhibitory to GFP fluorescence development, and that the often transient nature of GFP fluorescence in acid-producing bacteria can be overcome in flowcells, probably by the elimination of metabolic by-product accumulation.
Keywords: Gram-positive bacteria, biofilms, green fluorescent protein tagging, anaerobic growth
Abbreviations: GFP, green fluorescent protein
a Present address: National Institute for Dental Craniofacial Research, NIH Oral Infection and Immunity Branch, Bldg 30, 30 Convent Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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