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A Bacterial Continuous Culture System Based on a Microfluidic Droplet Open Reactor

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Abstract

Recently, micrometer-sized bacterial culture systems have attracted attention as useful tools for synthetic biology studies. Here, we present the development of a bacterial continuous culture system based on a microdroplet open reactor consisting of two types of water-in-oil microdroplets with diameters of several hundred micrometers. A continuous culture was realized the through supply of nutrient substrates and the removal of waste and excess bacterial cells based on repeated fusion and fission of droplets. The growth dynamics was controlled by the interval of fusion. We constructed a microfluidic system and quantitatively assessed the dynamics of the bacterial growth using a mathematical model. This system will facilitate the study of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering in the future.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Hiroyuki Noji, Prof. Kazuhito Tabata, and Prof. Shoji Takeuchi (Univ. Tokyo) for helpful discussions. This research was supported by PRESTO (Design and Control of Cellular Functions) from JST to M. T., a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (No. 26540150) from JSPS to M. T., a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (No. 23119005) from MEXT to D. K., and a Research Strategy Office Grant (B) Interdisciplinary Research Support for Young Scientists from Tokyo Tech to D. K. and M. T.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computational, Intelligence and Systems Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8502, Japan

    Manami Ito, Haruka Sugiura, Daisuke Kiga & Masahiro Takinoue

  2. Education Academy of Computational Life Sciences (ACLS), Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8502, Japan

    Shotaro Ayukawa

  3. Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan

    Daisuke Kiga

  4. PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama, 332-0012, Japan

    Masahiro Takinoue

Authors
  1. Manami Ito
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  2. Haruka Sugiura
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  3. Shotaro Ayukawa
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  4. Daisuke Kiga
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  5. Masahiro Takinoue
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Ito, M., Sugiura, H., Ayukawa, S. et al. A Bacterial Continuous Culture System Based on a Microfluidic Droplet Open Reactor. ANAL. SCI. 32, 61–66 (2016). https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.32.61

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.32.61

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