Flagella and Cell Body Staining of Bacteria with Fluorescent Dyes

Veronika Pfeifer; Valeriia Muraveva; Carsten Beta

doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-4023-4_8

Flagella and Cell Body Staining of Bacteria with Fluorescent Dyes

Methods Mol Biol. 2024:2828:79-85. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4023-4_8.

Authors

Veronika Pfeifer¹, Valeriia Muraveva¹, Carsten Beta^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
² Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. [email protected].
³ Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan. [email protected].

PMID: 39147972
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4023-4_8

Abstract

Bacteria can propel themselves by rotating a flagellum or a flagellar bundle. To image this thin structure in motile bacteria, the flagella can be vitally stained with fluorophores. This chapter describes a flagellar staining protocol with the additional possibility of visualizing the cell body. It offers the opportunity to track conformational changes of flagella and simultaneously track the positions of the cell bodies. The additional use of a filter increases the number of motile cells and improves the signal-to-noise ratio of images. The flagellar staining requires a prior introduction of a surface-exposed cysteine, which is not covered in this chapter.

Keywords: Bacteria; Bacteria tracking; Flagella-mediated motility; Flagellar configuration; Flagellar staining; Flagellum; Fluorescence imaging.

MeSH terms

Bacteria* / metabolism
Flagella* / metabolism
Flagella* / ultrastructure
Fluorescent Dyes* / chemistry
Microscopy, Fluorescence / methods
Staining and Labeling* / methods

Substances

Fluorescent Dyes