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Methods to Analyze Motility in Eury- and Crenarchaea

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Archaea

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2522))

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Abstract

Many archaea display swimming motility in liquid medium, which is empowered by the archaellum. Directional movement requires a functional archaellum and a sensing system, such as the chemotaxis system that is used by Euryarchaea. Two well-studied models are the euryarchaeon Haloferax volcanii and the crenarchaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. In this chapter we describe two methods to analyze their swimming behavior and directional movement: (a) time-lapse microscopy under native temperatures and (b) spotting on semi-solid agar or gelrite plates. Whereas the first method allows for deep analysis of swimming behavior, the second method is suited for high throughput comparison of multiple strains.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by an Emmy Noether grant (411069969) from the DFG (German Research Foundation) to T.E.F.Q. M.P. received funding from the AL1206/4-3 Grant from the DFG. M.v.W. was supported by the Momentum grant 94933 from the Volkswagen Foundation. X.Y. received support from the Life? Grant Az 96727 from the Volkswagen Foundation.

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Author notes

  1. Tessa E. F. Quax

    Present address: Biology of Archaea and Viruses, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Biology of Archaea, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Biology II, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Megha Patro, Marleen van Wolferen, Xing Ye & Sonja-Verena Albers

  2. Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Megha Patro

  3. Archaeal Virus-Host Interactions, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Biology II, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Tessa E. F. Quax

Authors
  1. Megha Patro
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  2. Marleen van Wolferen
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  3. Xing Ye
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  4. Sonja-Verena Albers
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  5. Tessa E. F. Quax
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sonja-Verena Albers or Tessa E. F. Quax .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cellular Biochemistry of Microorganisms - Biochemie III, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Bayern, Germany

    Sébastien Ferreira-Cerca

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Patro, M., van Wolferen, M., Ye, X., Albers, SV., Quax, T.E.F. (2022). Methods to Analyze Motility in Eury- and Crenarchaea. In: Ferreira-Cerca, S. (eds) Archaea. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2522. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2445-6_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2445-6_25

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2444-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-2445-6

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