Despite the fast progress in our understanding of the complex functions of gut microbiota,it is still challenging to directly investigate the in vivo microbial activities and processes on an individual cell basis.To g...Despite the fast progress in our understanding of the complex functions of gut microbiota,it is still challenging to directly investigate the in vivo microbial activities and processes on an individual cell basis.To gain knowledge of the indigenous growth/division patterns of the diverse mouse gut bacteria with a relatively high throughput,here,we propose an integrative strategy,which combines the use of fluorescent probe labeling,confocal imaging with single‐cell sorting,and sequencing.Mouse gut bacteria sequentially labeled by two fluorescent D‐amino acid probes in vivo were first imaged by confocal microscopy to visualize their growth patterns,which can be unveiled by the distribution of the two fluorescence signals on each bacterium.Bacterial cells of interest on the imaging slide were then sorted using a laser ejection equipment,and the collected cells were then sequenced individually to identify their taxa.Our strategy allows integrated acquirement of the growth pattern knowledge of a variety of gut bacteria and their genomic information on a single‐cell basis,which should also have great potential in studying many other complex bacterial systems.展开更多
基金We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grants 22122702,21735004,and 21775128)Innovative research team of high‐level local universities in Shanghai(SHSMU‐ZLCX20212601).
文摘Despite the fast progress in our understanding of the complex functions of gut microbiota,it is still challenging to directly investigate the in vivo microbial activities and processes on an individual cell basis.To gain knowledge of the indigenous growth/division patterns of the diverse mouse gut bacteria with a relatively high throughput,here,we propose an integrative strategy,which combines the use of fluorescent probe labeling,confocal imaging with single‐cell sorting,and sequencing.Mouse gut bacteria sequentially labeled by two fluorescent D‐amino acid probes in vivo were first imaged by confocal microscopy to visualize their growth patterns,which can be unveiled by the distribution of the two fluorescence signals on each bacterium.Bacterial cells of interest on the imaging slide were then sorted using a laser ejection equipment,and the collected cells were then sequenced individually to identify their taxa.Our strategy allows integrated acquirement of the growth pattern knowledge of a variety of gut bacteria and their genomic information on a single‐cell basis,which should also have great potential in studying many other complex bacterial systems.
