2026-10-07T11:52:27Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33416257 2026-09-15T12:51:49Z category_24352 category_30172 category_30187 category_24163 category_24148 category_24169 portal_549 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Nanometer-resolution imaging of living bacteria across species and cellular orientations Anna Scheeder (20969870) Joanna Szczepaniak (24696002) Yulianna (Julie) Koziy (17035479) Naomi Mara Claro De Oliveira (19764864) Will Trewby (17726106) Renata Kaminska (24696007) Jeremy Brown (6778883) Colin Kleanthous (11361259) Bart Hoogenboom (6781322) Bacteriology Soft condensed matter Biological physics Receptors and membrane biology Cellular interactions (incl. adhesion, matrix, cell wall) Structural biology (incl. macromolecular modelling) Atomic force microscopy Bacterial cell envelopes Bacterial surfaces Biological membranes Outer membrane Supramolecular structure Imaging <p dir="ltr">The bacterial cell envelope is a complex superstructure that is an important target and a major barrier for antibiotics. To date, highest-resolution images of native cell envelopes have been obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM), but its use is limited by challenges in bacterial immobilization. We establish glutaraldehyde-functionalized glass surfaces for reversible covalent attachment, enabling robust adhesion across species and cellular orientations while preserving cell viability and growth. This approach allowed imaging of <i>Escherichia coli</i> both expressing O-antigen and fully lacking lipopolysaccharide (LPS) oligosaccharides, revealing that AFM contrast depends on LPS complexity and confirming previously observed outer membrane domains as LPS-enriched islands. It also enabled imaging of <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> and <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i> outer membranes, which lack the characteristic protein trimers observed in model <i>E. coli</i>. Finally, we discovered growth-phase dependent alterations in <i>E. coli</i> pole morphology, where trimer networks typical of exponential-phase cells were unresolved and morphological defects appeared.</p><p dir="ltr">This data set contains the source data for a publication on the study as described above, which has been accepted-in-principle for publication at <i>Nature Communication</i> (2026). The data is in the form of numeric tables, images and microscopy source data that can al be accessed by open-source software.</p> 2026-09-15T12:51:49Z Dataset Dataset 10.5522/04/33416257.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Nanometer-resolution_imaging_of_living_bacteria_across_species_and_cellular_orientations/33416257 CC BY 4.0