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Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography

As productive biofilms are increasingly gaining interest in research, the quantitative monitoring of biofilm formation on- or offline for the process remains a challenge. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a fast and often used method for scanning biofilms, but it has difficulty scanning through...

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Autores principales: Schaefer, Susanne, Walther, Jakob, Strieth, Dorina, Ulber, Roland, Bröckel, Ulrich
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8398007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34442822
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9081743
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author Schaefer, Susanne
Walther, Jakob
Strieth, Dorina
Ulber, Roland
Bröckel, Ulrich
author_facet Schaefer, Susanne
Walther, Jakob
Strieth, Dorina
Ulber, Roland
Bröckel, Ulrich
author_sort Schaefer, Susanne
collection PubMed
description As productive biofilms are increasingly gaining interest in research, the quantitative monitoring of biofilm formation on- or offline for the process remains a challenge. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a fast and often used method for scanning biofilms, but it has difficulty scanning through more dense optical materials. X-ray microtomography (μCT) can measure biofilms in most geometries but is very time-consuming. By combining both methods for the first time, the weaknesses of both methods could be compensated. The phototrophic cyanobacterium Tolypothrix distorta was cultured in a moving bed photobioreactor inside a biocarrier with a semi-enclosed geometry. An automated workflow was developed to process µCT scans of the biocarriers. This allowed quantification of biomass volume and biofilm-coverage on the biocarrier, both globally and spatially resolved. At the beginning of the cultivation, a growth limitation was detected in the outer region of the carrier, presumably due to shear stress. In the later phase, light limitations could be found inside the biocarrier. µCT data and biofilm thicknesses measured by OCT displayed good correlation. The latter could therefore be used to rapidly measure the biofilm formation in a process. The methods presented here can help gain a deeper understanding of biofilms inside a process and detect any limitations.
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spelling pubmed-83980072021-08-29 Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography Schaefer, Susanne Walther, Jakob Strieth, Dorina Ulber, Roland Bröckel, Ulrich Microorganisms Article As productive biofilms are increasingly gaining interest in research, the quantitative monitoring of biofilm formation on- or offline for the process remains a challenge. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a fast and often used method for scanning biofilms, but it has difficulty scanning through more dense optical materials. X-ray microtomography (μCT) can measure biofilms in most geometries but is very time-consuming. By combining both methods for the first time, the weaknesses of both methods could be compensated. The phototrophic cyanobacterium Tolypothrix distorta was cultured in a moving bed photobioreactor inside a biocarrier with a semi-enclosed geometry. An automated workflow was developed to process µCT scans of the biocarriers. This allowed quantification of biomass volume and biofilm-coverage on the biocarrier, both globally and spatially resolved. At the beginning of the cultivation, a growth limitation was detected in the outer region of the carrier, presumably due to shear stress. In the later phase, light limitations could be found inside the biocarrier. µCT data and biofilm thicknesses measured by OCT displayed good correlation. The latter could therefore be used to rapidly measure the biofilm formation in a process. The methods presented here can help gain a deeper understanding of biofilms inside a process and detect any limitations. MDPI 2021-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8398007/ /pubmed/34442822 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9081743 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Schaefer, Susanne
Walther, Jakob
Strieth, Dorina
Ulber, Roland
Bröckel, Ulrich
Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography
title Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography
title_full Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography
title_fullStr Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography
title_full_unstemmed Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography
title_short Insights into the Development of Phototrophic Biofilms in a Bioreactor by a Combination of X-ray Microtomography and Optical Coherence Tomography
title_sort insights into the development of phototrophic biofilms in a bioreactor by a combination of x-ray microtomography and optical coherence tomography
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8398007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34442822
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9081743
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