Zooming in to acquire micro-reaction: Application of microfluidics on soil microbiome

Highlights

1. Basic principles of microfluidics are introduced

2. Microfluidics to study bacterial spatial distribution and functions

3. Challenges of microfluidics for soil microbiome in future

Abstract

Microfluidics confers unique advantages in microbiological studies as these devices can accurately replicate the micro- and even nano-scale structures of soil to simulate the habitats of bacteria. It not only helps us understand the spatial distribution of bacterial communities (such as biofilms), but also provides mechanistic insights into microbial behaviors including chemotaxis and horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Microfluidics provides a feasible means for real-time, in situ studies and enables in-depth exploration of the mechanisms of interactions in the soil microbiome. This review aims to introduce the basic principles of microfluidic technology and summarize the recent progress in microfluidic devices to study bacterial spatial distribution and functions, as well as biological processes, such bacterial chemotaxis, biofilm streamers (BS), quorum sensing (QS), and HGT. The challenges in and future development of microfluidics for soil microbiological studies are also discussed.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Microfluidics / Soil bacteria / Biofilms / Chemotaxis / Quorum sensing / Horizontal gene transfer

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877029, 41961130383), Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship (NAF\R1\191017), and Wuhan Science and Technology Bureau (2019020701011469). No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.

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