Imagine a device that could swiftly analyze microbes in oceans and other aquatic environments, revealing the health of these organisms and their response to threats to their ecosystems. Rutgers researchers have created just such a tool. It’s a portable device that could be used to assess microbes, screen for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and analyze algae that live in coral reefs. Their work was published today in Scientific Reports.
The tool, developed initially to assess algae, can determine either in the field or in laboratories how microbes and cells respond to environmental stressors such as pollution, temperature changes, and changes in water salinity.
“Our goal was to develop a novel way of assessing cell health that did not rely on using expensive and complex genomic tools,” says co-senior author Debashish Bhattacharya. “Being able to assess and understand the status of cells, without having to send samples back to the lab, can allow the identification of threatened ecosystems based on a ‘stress index’ for their inhabitants.”
The research focused on a well-studied green microalga called Picochlorum. The tool can quickly reveal whether a cell is stressed, robust, or unaffected by environmental conditions. Microbes pass one-by-one through a micro-channel that is thinner than the diameter of a human hair. Impedance, or the amount an electrical field in the tool is perturbed when a cell passes through the channel, is measured. Impedance varies among cells in a population, reflecting their size and physiological state, both of which provide important readouts of health.
The researchers showed that electrical impedance measurements can be applied at the single-cell and population levels. The scientists plan to use the tool to screen for antibiotic resistance in different bacteria and algae that live in symbiosis with coral reefs, which will help give them a better idea of coral health.
Image: This portable tool can rapidly reveal whether a cell is stressed, robust, or unaffected by environmental conditions. Image courtesy of Jianye Sui.