Observing Chemotaxis in <italic toggle="yes">Vibrio fischeri</italic> Using Soft Agar Assays in an Undergraduate Microbiology Laboratory

Abstract

Chemotaxis, the directed movement of cells towards or away from a chemical, is both an exciting and complicated behavior observed in many bacterial species. Attempting to adequately visualize or demonstrate the chemotaxic response of bacteria in the classroom is difficult at best, with good models to illustrate the concept lacking. The BSL-1 marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri (a.k.a. Aliivibrio fischeri) is easy to culture, making it an ideal candidate for experiments in an undergraduate microbiology course. A number of chemoattractants for V. fischeri have been identified, including a variety of sugars, nucleosides, and amino acids (1, 2). Below presents how the soft agar-based chemotaxis assay can be implemented in the undergraduate laboratory. As bacterial cells migrate towards one or more attractants in soft agar, students can directly observe the chemotaxic behavior of V. fischeri without the need to learn complicated techniques or use specialized equipment. Once the bands of bacterial cells are observed, the migration can then be disrupted by the addition of excess attractant to the soft agar, thereby visualizing what happens once cells are no longer in a gradient of attractant. In addition, soft agar plates lacking attractants can be used to visualize the random movements of bacterial cells that are non-chemotaxing. These exercises can be used in the microbiology laboratory to help students understand the complex behavior of bacterial chemotaxis.