Comparison of Versatile Immobilization Methods for Gram‐Positive Bacteria on a Silicon Cantilever.

Force spectroscopy and especially single cell force spectroscopy with bacterial probes provide a powerful tool for the investigation of bacterial adhesion to different surfaces. Thereby, a crucial step is the immobilization of the bacteria on the cantilever. Until today, there have been developed versatile methods to attach bacteria to a cantilever, but only few studies compare these methods in a quantitative way. In this work, different functionalizations of the cantilever as well as two picking‐up parameters for three gram‐positive bacteria are evaluated. While there is no functionalization which works best for all of the bacteria, polydopamine, the adhesive protein Cell‐Tak^TM and a gas phase silanization in combination with an activation of the bacteria are the most promising candidates. Further, some general trends how the two investigated picking‐up parameters influence the adhesive behavior of the bacteria on the cantilever, which also depends strongly on the shape of the bacteria are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]