posted on 2023-08-31, 13:03authored byJungwoo Kim, Soo Bin Ahn, Subin Hong, Kwang-sun Kim, Esther Ha-eun Ko, I Jeong Jo, JuOae Chang, Meehyein Kim, Wonsik Lee, Haemi Lee
Nanoscopic investigation of bacterial cells is essential
to reveal
their physiological status, impacting all cellular functions. Currently,
this requires labeled probes or targeted staining procedures. Herein,
we report a new bacterial feature, intracellular dynamics-resolved
Rayleigh scattering (IDRS), that visualizes spatiotemporal cytoplasmic
transitions in unlabeled bacteria and characterizes their real-time
physiological status in 10 s. From single-bacterium IDRS signals,
we discovered unique spatial patterns and their multiple transitions
in Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The magnitude of IDRS
signal variation highly correlated with the metabolic status of bacteria,
differentiating persistent subpopulations. This is also the first
report demonstrating distinct real-time metabolic conditions of unlabeled
drug-resistant bacteria that are exposed to different doses of antibiotics.
Our strategy opens up a way to simultaneously trace in situ metabolic and antibiotic resistance statuses, which can be applied
in single-cell level control of bacterial metabolism and efficacy
with a heterogeneous nature.