Authors

Yoshifumi Wakisaka, Yuta Suzuki, Osamu Iwata, Ayaka Nakashima, Takuro Ito, Misa Hirose, Ryota Domon, Mai Sugawara, Norimichi Tsumura, Hiroshi Watarai, Tomoyoshi Shimobaba, Kengo Suzuki, Keisuke Goda & Yasuyuki Ozeki 

Abstract

Understanding metabolism in live microalgae is crucial for efficient biomaterial engineering, but conventional methods fail to evaluate heterogeneous populations of motile microalgae due to the labelling requirements and limited imaging speeds. Here, we demonstrate label-free video-rate metabolite imaging of live Euglena gracilis and statistical analysis of intracellular metabolite distributions under different culture conditions. Our approach provides further insights into understanding microalgal heterogeneity, optimizing culture methods and screening mutant microalgae.

Nature Microbiology URL: http://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol2016124