TY - JOUR
T1 - Let there be bioluminescence
T2 - Development of a biophotonic imaging platform for in situ analyses of oral biofilms in animal models
AU - Merritt, Justin
AU - Senpuku, Hidenobu
AU - Kreth, Jens
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - In the current study, we describe a novel biophotonic imaging-based reporter system that is particularly useful for the study of virulence in polymicrobial infections and interspecies interactions within animal models. A suite of luciferase enzymes was compared using three early colonizing species of the human oral flora (Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus gordonii and Streptococcus sanguinis) to determine the utility of the different reporters for multiplexed imaging studies in vivo. Using the multiplex approach, we were able to track individual species within a dual-species oral infection model in mice with both temporal and spatial resolution. We also demonstrate how biophotonic imaging of multiplexed luciferase reporters could be adapted for real-time quantification of bacterial gene expression in situ. By creating an inducible dual-luciferase expressing reporter strain of S.mutans, we were able to exogenously control and measure expression of nlmAB (encoding the bacteriocin mutacin IV) within mice to assess its importance for the persistence ability of S.mutans in the oral cavity. The imaging system described in the current study circumvents many of the inherent limitations of current animal model systems, which should now make it feasible to test hypotheses that were previously impractical to model.
AB - In the current study, we describe a novel biophotonic imaging-based reporter system that is particularly useful for the study of virulence in polymicrobial infections and interspecies interactions within animal models. A suite of luciferase enzymes was compared using three early colonizing species of the human oral flora (Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus gordonii and Streptococcus sanguinis) to determine the utility of the different reporters for multiplexed imaging studies in vivo. Using the multiplex approach, we were able to track individual species within a dual-species oral infection model in mice with both temporal and spatial resolution. We also demonstrate how biophotonic imaging of multiplexed luciferase reporters could be adapted for real-time quantification of bacterial gene expression in situ. By creating an inducible dual-luciferase expressing reporter strain of S.mutans, we were able to exogenously control and measure expression of nlmAB (encoding the bacteriocin mutacin IV) within mice to assess its importance for the persistence ability of S.mutans in the oral cavity. The imaging system described in the current study circumvents many of the inherent limitations of current animal model systems, which should now make it feasible to test hypotheses that were previously impractical to model.
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U2 - 10.1111/1462-2920.12953
DO - 10.1111/1462-2920.12953
M3 - Article
C2 - 26119252
AN - SCOPUS:84956582787
SN - 1462-2912
VL - 18
SP - 174
EP - 190
JO - Environmental Microbiology
JF - Environmental Microbiology
IS - 1
ER -