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Multi-modal imaging reveals a small subpopulation of Deinococcus radiodurans exhibiting correlated metabolic activities
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  • Weinan Zhu,
  • Xinyu He,
  • Haoran Li,
  • Bo Jiang,
  • Ruo-Chen Xie,
  • Wei Wang
Weinan Zhu
Nanjing University

Corresponding Author:zhuweinan98@163.com

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Xinyu He
Nanjing University
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Haoran Li
Nanjing University
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Bo Jiang
Nanjing University
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Ruo-Chen Xie
Nanjing University
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Wei Wang
Nanjing University
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Abstract

Since a polyvalent strategy has recently been assumed to be adopted by Deinococcus radiodurans that can generate various resistance against many different detrimental sources of oxidative damage (e.g. reactive oxygen species, heavy metal ions and ionising radiation), investigating more than one restorative metabolic activities and their interrelation of the very same entities of Deinococcus radiodurans is of great significance for exploring its polyextremophile nature, which will be insightful for obtaining fundamental generic insights into life sustainability. Herein, we apply mainly fluorescence microscopy and back reflection microscopy to visibly assess the respective activities of superoxide radical generation and silver ion metabolism for individual Deinococcus radiodurans. Strikingly, only a minority (<20%) of the bacteria which show low superoxide radical levels is revealed to exhibit considerable formation of silver nanoparticles whilst those containing more superoxide radicals all show minimum silver ion metabolism. The discovery of the strong negative correlation for the small subpopulation between the two visualised different metabolic activities not only provides direct experimental evidence in terms of bacterial functionality for the inferred survival regime of the extreme microbe, but also suggests a new way of chemically examining biology from the perspective of inter-functional relationship.
11 Apr 2022Submitted to Natural Sciences
12 Apr 2022Submission Checks Completed
12 Apr 2022Assigned to Editor
12 Apr 2022Reviewer(s) Assigned
26 Apr 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
27 Apr 2022Editorial Decision: Revise Major
23 Jun 20221st Revision Received
23 Jun 2022Submission Checks Completed
23 Jun 2022Assigned to Editor
25 Jun 2022Reviewer(s) Assigned
09 Jul 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
11 Jul 2022Editorial Decision: Accept