Abstract
Despite the ubiquity and importance of microbial communities, understanding the population dynamics of mixed cultures in structured environments remains a fundamental problem in microbial ecology. Identifying bacterial strains within a complex microbial community represents a challenging technical problem. We describe a low-cost optomechanical device designed to acquire multi-channel time-lapse images of bacterial colonies growing in agar plates. This device uses a system of addressable LEDs and fluorescence filters to estimate the spatio-temporal distribution of different fluorescently-tagged cells from time-lapse images obtained using a standard DSLR camera with a macro lens. We demonstrate the potential of this device with a range of applications from experimental microbiology. <strong>METADATA OVERVIEW</strong> Main design files: <a href="https://github.com/ccg-esb-lab/baffle" target="_blank">https://github.com/ccg-esb-lab/baffle</a> DOI archive: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6960207" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6960207</a> Building instructions: <a href="https://www.penamiller.com/lab/baffle" target="_blank">https://www.penamiller.com/lab/baffle</a> Scripts to produce figures: <a href="https://github.com/ccg-esb-lab/BAFFLE/tree/master/macros" target="_blank">https://github.com/ccg-esb-lab/BAFFLE/tree/master/macros</a> Raw data needed to produce figures: <a href="https://github.com/ccg-esb-lab/BAFFLE/tree/master/data" target="_blank">https://github.com/ccg-esb-lab/BAFFLE/tree/master/data</a> Target group: school or academic staff, NGOs and scientific staff. Skills required for building the device: 3D printing – intermediate; mechanical assembly – intermediate; electrical assembly – intermediate. Replication: No builds known to the authors so far.
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