At present,there are no methods that determine the total micro ial load on an abiotic substra tein real time.The utility of such a capability ranges from sterilization and medical diagnostics tothe search for new micr...At present,there are no methods that determine the total micro ial load on an abiotic substra tein real time.The utility of such a capability ranges from sterilization and medical diagnostics tothe search for new microorganisms in the environment and study of their ecological niches.Wereport the development of a hand held,fluorescence detection device and demonstrate its applicability to the field detection of Arctic bacteria,This technology is based on the early pioneering work of Britton Chance which elucidated the intrinsic fiuorescence of a number ofmetabolites and protein cofactors in cels,including reduced pyridine nucleotides,cytochromesand flavins.A PDA controls the device(fluorescence excitation and data collection)and processesthe multiwavelength signals to yield bacterial cell counts,including cstimates of ive cells,deadcells and endospores.Unlike existing methods for cell counting,this method requires no samplecontact or addition of reagents.The use of this technology is demonstrated with in situmea surements of two sub-glacial microbial communities at sites in Palander and colonized surfacerocks in the Bockijord Volcanic Complex during AMASE 2008(Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition),The total bacterial load on the interrogated sample surfaces ranged from<20 cells/cm to>1o9 cells/cm^(2).展开更多
基金supported by AMASE,under the NASA ASTEP program(A.Stele PI),the Thomas R.Brown Foundation,and the University of Arizona.
文摘At present,there are no methods that determine the total micro ial load on an abiotic substra tein real time.The utility of such a capability ranges from sterilization and medical diagnostics tothe search for new microorganisms in the environment and study of their ecological niches.Wereport the development of a hand held,fluorescence detection device and demonstrate its applicability to the field detection of Arctic bacteria,This technology is based on the early pioneering work of Britton Chance which elucidated the intrinsic fiuorescence of a number ofmetabolites and protein cofactors in cels,including reduced pyridine nucleotides,cytochromesand flavins.A PDA controls the device(fluorescence excitation and data collection)and processesthe multiwavelength signals to yield bacterial cell counts,including cstimates of ive cells,deadcells and endospores.Unlike existing methods for cell counting,this method requires no samplecontact or addition of reagents.The use of this technology is demonstrated with in situmea surements of two sub-glacial microbial communities at sites in Palander and colonized surfacerocks in the Bockijord Volcanic Complex during AMASE 2008(Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition),The total bacterial load on the interrogated sample surfaces ranged from<20 cells/cm to>1o9 cells/cm^(2).
