Do you ever wonder ifbacteria make distinctive sounds? If we could listen to the bugs, we would know if they are alive or dead. Unless thebacteria are resistant to the antibiotic, those sounds would stop. A team of researchers from TU Delft led by Dr. Farbod Alijani captured low-level noise from a single bacterium using a piece of Graphene. Their research is published in a journal.
The sound of a bug.
Farbod Alijani's team was looking into the mechanics of the material, but at a point they wondered what would happen if it came into contact with a biological object.
The team of researchers started a collaboration with the group of scientists. The team ran their first experiments with E. colibacteria. What we saw was striking. When a single bacterium sticks to the surface of a graphene drum, it creates a series of random oscillations that are as small as a few nanometers. We could hear the sound of a bug.
A drum is punched with a bacterium.
To understand how tiny these flagellar beats on graphene are, it is worth saying that they are at least. Alijani says that these beats can be converted to sound tracks and listened to.
Graphene is used to detect antibiotic resistance.
The implications of this research are enormous. The results of the experiment were clear: if thebacteria were resistant to the antibiotic, the oscillations just continued at the same level. When thebacteria were susceptible to the drug, the vibrations decreased until two hours later, but then they were gone. The phenomenon can be detected using a single cell.
For the future, Farbod Alijani says, we aim at improving our single-cell graphene antibiotic sensitivity platform and testing it against a variety of samples. It can eventually be used as a diagnostic tool for detecting antibiotic resistance in clinical practice.
The fight against antibiotic resistance is an ever-increasing threat to human health around the world.
The study is about the motion of singlebacteria with drums.
More information: Farbod Alijani, Probing nanomotion of single bacteria with graphene drums, Nature Nanotechnology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-022-01111-6. www.nature.com/articles/s41565-022-01111-6 Journal information: Nature Nanotechnology Citation: Bacterial soundtracks revealed by graphene membrane (2022, April 18) retrieved 18 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-bacterial-soundtracks-revealed-graphene-membrane.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
