Infrared Spectromicroscopy: Probing Live Cellular Responses to Environmental Changes

摘要

The recent advent of gene sequencing and high-throughput functional genomic approaches has led to a paradigm shift in studying microbial responses to environmental changesa??from a reductionist approach of studying the structure and function of individual cellular parts to global investigations of increasingly complex systems of molecules and their interactions. While gene sequencing and high-throughput functional genomic approaches have already allowed researchers to focus on a genome-based understanding of both the individual cellular parts and the biochemical networks, we now need new capabilities that will enable investigation of biochemical processes as a whole in living cells. Today, much of our understanding has come from biochemistry experiments that are averaged over large populations of cells. These approaches have clarified many detailed mechanisms, but they are not sufficient to reveal the differences that exist even within a genetically homogeneous population. For example, recent single-molecule imaging studies of living cells have revealed that the cellular reactions that occur in complex networks of regulatory and metabolic processes during adaptive responses may exhibit both spatial and temporal separation within a population or a community. This heterogeneity, which can be of ecological significance, clearly cannot be evaluated in experiments that are averaged over large populations. The challenge is to identify those cells of ecological importance within a large population and track their biochemical reactions in situ in real time. In this article, we first describe how we can help to meet this challenge by combining a classical infrared approach (used to study cells and living tissues for over six decades) with a brilliant synchrotron and an appropriate microfluidic platform, followed by three application examples.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08940886.2010.516737