著者
Kohei Takahashi Xiaojie Li Tatsuki Kunoh Ryo Nagasawa Norio Takeshita Andrew S. Utada
出版者
Japanese Society of Microbial Ecology / Japanese Society of Soil Microbiology / Taiwan Society of Microbial Ecology / Japanese Society of Plant Microbe Interactions / Japanese Society for Extremophiles
雑誌
Microbes and Environments (ISSN:13426311)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.38, no.5, pp.ME22089, 2023 (Released:2023-03-23)
参考文献数
61
被引用文献数
1

Microorganisms develop into communities in nearly every environmental niche, which is typically replete with micrometer-scale gaps and features. In each of these habitats, microorganisms adapt to and are affected by their physical environment. Conventional culture methods use glass bottom dishes or millimeter-scale flow cells, which poorly mimic the complexity of natural micrometer-scale environments; therefore, the limitations associated with the creation of microbe-scale environments with granularity hinder the ability to examine their ecological behavior. Microfluidics is a tool that is increasingly being used to study microorganisms because it enables the manipulation of micrometer-scale flows while simultaneously facilitating real-time and live-cell imaging. In this review, we discuss several insights into the behavior of bacteria and fungi that were gained through the adoption of microfluidics to control complex micrometer-scale environments. We also discuss the potential of the increased adoption of this tool.