ABSTRACT
Microbial communities growing in laboratory-based flow chambers were investigated in order to study compartmentalization of specific gene expression. Among the community members studied, the focus was in particular on Pseudomonas putida and a strain of anAcinetobacter sp., and the genes studied are involved in the biodegradation of toluene and related aromatic compounds. The upper-pathway promoter (Pu) and themeta-pathway promoter (Pm) from the TOL plasmid were fused independently to the gene coding for the green fluorescent protein (GFP), and expression from these promoters was studied inP. putida, which was a dominant community member. Biofilms were cultured in flow chambers, which in combination with scanning confocal laser microscopy allowed direct monitoring of promoter activity with single-cell spatial resolution. Expression from thePu promoter was homogeneously induced by benzyl alcohol in both community and pure-culture biofilms, while the Pmpromoter was induced in the mixed community but not in a pure-culture biofilm. By sequentially adding community members, induction ofPm was shown to be a consequence of direct metabolic interactions between an Acinetobacter species and P. putida. Furthermore, in fixed biofilm samples organism identity was determined and gene expression was visualized at the same time by combining GFP expression with in situ hybridization with fluorescence-labeled 16S rRNA targeting probes. This combination of techniques is a powerful approach for investigating structure-function relationships in microbial communities.
Image registration and visualization of in situ gene expression images.
