Microfluidic system for cultivation and monitoring of individual riboflavin overproducing Escherichia coli cells

Abstract

We present a microfluidic platform allowing real-time observation of heterogeneous bacterial populations for basic studies of microbial growth and production. We succeeded in batch culturing and monitoring Escherichia coli cells overexpressing the riboflavin (vitamin B2) biosynthetic gene cluster which enables them to secret preparative amounts of riboflavin. Production in cultures with and without induction of the gene cluster were compared.