Quantitative Imaging for Living Bacteria by AFM

The Institute of Molecular Sciences in Paris studied the dynamics and properties of living bacteria in purely controlled physiological conditions at nanometer scale: motility or adhesion processes of bacteria on solid substrates, biofilm formation, the influence of light on moving properties of cyanobacteria, effects of antibiotics on bacterial membranes and biofilm. The study was performed using the scanning probe technique AFM.

The work has been published in a paper entitled “ In-Situ determination of the mechanical properties of gliding on non-motile bacteria by Atomic Force Microscopy under physiological conditions without immobillisation”.