Most cells on the planet touch another cell at some point
or exist in structured communities referred to as aggregates, consortia, biofilms, and sometimes colonies. What are the metabolic consequences of cellular interactions? Is their a geographical component to microbial life? What is the metabolic heterogeneity of individual isogenic cells? We think this is a fundamental area of microbiological research.
secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) ・ electron microscopy ・ fluorescence in situ hybridization・continuous culture ・
some previous works in this area:
Single cell activity reveals direct electron transfer in methanotrophic consortia
SE McGlynn, GL Chadwick, CP Kempes, VJ Orphan
Nature 526 (7574), 531
Artificial electron acceptors decouple archaeal methane oxidation from sulfate reduction
S Scheller, H Yu, GL Chadwick, SE McGlynn, VJ Orphan
Science 351 (6274), 703-707
Heavy water and 15N labelling with NanoSIMS analysis reveals growth rate‐dependent metabolic heterogeneity in chemostats
SH Kopf, SE McGlynn, A Green‐Saxena, Y Guan, DK Newman, ...
Environmental microbiology 17 (7), 2542-2556