Can we make use of Atomic force microscopy to study the interactions between two cells or two bacteria? Could we check how adhesive forces play role in two interacting bacteria?
If yes, how?
[Thoughts from a non-biological AFM user:]
In principle, AFM is of course a good tool to study interactions. However, I am not so convinced it is fast enough to study living cells since I would expect them to move faster than the AFM can scan; but since people seem to do it, it should be possible:
Article Atomic Force Microscopy of Bacterial Communities
For inverstigating the adhesive forces, it might be interesting to pick up bacteria with the tip and the put them on another. This is routinely done with carbon nanotubes:
Article Attachment of carbon nanotubes to atomic force microscope probes
Check this out: Mittelviefhaus, M., Müller, D.B., Zambelli, T. et al. A modular atomic force microscopy approach reveals a large range of hydrophobic adhesion forces among bacterial members of the leaf microbiota. ISME J 13, 1878–1882 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0404-1
Please check this reference paper out:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261603894_Quantifying_the_forces_guiding_microbial_cell_adhesion_using_single-cell_force_spectroscopy
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