Gurung Jyoti P, Gel Murat, Baker Matthew A B
School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science, UNSW Sydney.
CSIRO Manufacturing, Clayton.
Microb Cell. 2020 Jan 15;7(3):66-79. doi: 10.15698/mic2020.03.710.
The microbial environment is typically within a fluid and the key processes happen at the microscopic scale where viscosity dominates over inertial forces. Microfluidic tools are thus well suited to study microbial motility because they offer precise control of spatial structures and are ideal for the generation of laminar fluid flows with low Reynolds numbers at microbial lengthscales. These tools have been used in combination with microscopy platforms to visualise and study various microbial taxes. These include establishing concentration and temperature gradients to influence motility via chemotaxis and thermotaxis, or controlling the surrounding microenvironment to influence rheotaxis, magnetotaxis, and phototaxis. Improvements in microfluidic technology have allowed fine separation of cells based on subtle differences in motility traits and have applications in synthetic biology, directed evolution, and applied medical microbiology.
微生物环境通常处于流体中，关键过程发生在微观尺度，此时黏性力主导惯性力。因此，微流控工具非常适合研究微生物运动，因为它们能精确控制空间结构，并且非常适合在微生物长度尺度上生成低雷诺数的层流。这些工具已与显微镜平台结合使用，以可视化和研究各种微生物趋性。这包括建立浓度和温度梯度，通过化学趋化和热趋化影响运动性，或控制周围微环境以影响流趋性、磁趋性和光趋性。微流控技术的改进使得基于运动特性的细微差异对细胞进行精细分离成为可能，并在合成生物学、定向进化和应用医学微生物学中得到应用。
