Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 47: Cell Adhesion

BP 47.3: Talk

Thursday, March 23, 2017, 10:15–10:30, ZEU 250

Measuring the contact area of Staphylococcus aureus to solid substrates using single-cell force spectroscopy — •Christian Spengler, Nicolas Thewes, and Karin Jacobs — Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken

Bacteria adhere to virtually every surface and promote the formation of - desirable or unwanted - biofilms. Therefore, in many fields, like engineering, medicine, and biology, understanding bacterial adhesion is of great interest in order to support or inhibit the formation of biofilms. Consequently, there exist different models that describe the process of bacterial adhesion. In these models, besides direct values, like adhesion force and rupture distance, also more indirect quantities, like the size of the contact area between bacterial cell and surface, play a crucial role. We present a method to measure the radius of this circular contact area for Staphylococci by taking advantage of the fact that the adhesion force of these cells differs strongly between surfaces with different surface energies[1]. We collect multiple force/distance curves with single-cell AFM probes at a very sharp interface between hydrophilic silicon and a hydrophobic self assembling monolayer of silanes. The measured radii of the contact area range from tens of nanometers up to 300 nm and differ strongly between individual cells. Our results also give new insights into the properties and distribution of surface molecules in the bacterial cell wall.

[1] N. Thewes et al., "Hydrophobic interaction governs unspecific adhesion of staphylococci: a single cell force spectroscopy study"; Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 5(2014) 1501