Abstract

Microfluidic Droplet Reactors to Reveal the Bacterial Interaction in an Antibiotic Environment

Xinne Zhao, Researcher, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf

Cross-protection is one of the mechanisms by which different bacteria, sharing the same environment, protect each other to survive in the presence of antibiotics. The antibiotic-resistant microbes help antibiotic-sensitive species survive. For example, by secreting enzymes to deactivate antibiotic. Here, a microfluidic droplet reactor is designed to track the survival status of co-cultured sensitive and resistant-strains in an antibiotic environment.3 The microfluidic reactor system monitors in real-time the growth of two bacterial strains by detecting their different fluorescent signals; the E.coli YFP strain is chosen as an antibiotic-sensitive group, which expresses yellow fluorescent protein. Simultaneously, the E.coli BFP strain produces blue fluorescence and is resistant to antibiotics. According to the bacterial growth curve, the most important parameters, such as growth rate, lag period, the final cell density of each strain, will be tracked. Besides, to reveal the role of cross-protection, the effect of initial population ratios, antibiotic dosage, and bacterial space distribution on bacterial coexistence will be researched in detail.