Assessment of the state of activity of individual bacterial cells by hybridization with a ribosomal RNA targeted fluorescently labelled oligonucleotidic probe

A fluorescently labelled oligonucleotide probe complementary to an evolutionarily conserved domain of the small subunit ribosomal RNA sequence has been used with an image analysis equipment to quantify cellular rRNA contents during the successive phase of a bacterial culture (Escherichia coli). The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:FEMS microbiology ecology 1994-11, Vol.15 (1‐2), p.207-213
Main Authors: Ruimy, Raymond, Breittmayer, Violette, Boivin, Valérie, Christen, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteriological methods and techniques used in bacteriology
Bacteriology
Biological and medical sciences
Escherichia coli
Fluorescent probe
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
In situ hybridization
Metabolism
Microbiology
Ribosomal RNA
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Summary:A fluorescently labelled oligonucleotide probe complementary to an evolutionarily conserved domain of the small subunit ribosomal RNA sequence has been used with an image analysis equipment to quantify cellular rRNA contents during the successive phase of a bacterial culture (Escherichia coli). The amount of hybridization increased steadily upon inoculation of stationary phase bacteria into a new medium, while cell divisions were delayed. This hybridization signal was abruptly reduced by 50% at the onset of the exponential growth phase during which it then remained stable. A further slow decrease took place during stationary phase. The amount of rRNA per cell is thus maximal immediately before the beginning of active cell division. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of bacterial ecology.
ISSN:0168-6496
1574-6941
DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6941.1994.tb00244.x