ArticleLab on a chip2018
A universal platform for selection and high-resolution phenotypic screening of bacterial mutants using the nanowell slide.
Article in Lab on a chip, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Engineering bacterial cell morphology for the design of robust cell factories.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2025Review
- Combinatorial Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Enabled by Non-Contact Printing.Micromachines · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Petri dish and microtiter plate are the golden standard for selection and screening of bacteria in microbiological research. To improve on the limited resolution and throughput of these methods, we developed a universal, user-friendly platform for selection and high-resolution phenotypic screening based on the nanowell slide. This miniaturized platform has an optimal ratio between throughput and assay complexity, holding 672 nanowells of 500 nl each. As monoclonality is essential in bacterial genetics, we used FACS to inoculate each nanowell with a single bacterium in 15 min. We further extended the protocol to select and sort only bacteria of interest from a mixed culture. We demonstrated this by isolating single transposon mutants generated by a custom-made transposon with dual selection for GFP fluorescence and kanamycin resistance. Optical compatibility of the nanowell slide enabled phenotypic screening of sorted mutants by spectrophotometric recording during incubation. By processing the absorbance data with our custom algorithm, a phenotypic screen for growth-associated mutations was performed. Alternatively, by processing fluorescence data, we detected metabolism-associated mutations, exemplified by a screen for β-galactosidase activity. Besides spectrophotometry, optical compatibility enabled us to perform microscopic analysis directly in the nanowells to screen for mutants with altered morphologies. Despite the miniaturized format, easy transition from nano- to macroscale cultures allowed retrieval of bacterial mutants for downstream genetic analysis, demonstrated here by a cloning-free single-primer PCR protocol. Taken together, our FACS-linked nanowell slide replaces manual selection of mutants on agar plates, and enables combined selection and phenotypic screening in a one-step process. The versatility of the nanowell slide, and the modular workflow built on mainstream technologies, makes our universal platform widely applicable in microbiological research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.