Use of Microautoradiography to Study in situ Physiology of Bacteria in Biofilms

Microautoradiography is a technique that enables direct detection of active bacteria in complex microbial systems on a single cell level. When combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization using oligonucleotide probes for identification of the microorganisms, it is possible to link key physiological features to the identity of microorganism. In this way information can be obtained about the physiology of cultured as well as not-yet cultured microorganism in biofilms and other complex ecosystems in a way that presently cannot be provided by other methods. In this small review we describe the basic procedure, the type of information that can be obtained, the most important limitations by using this approach, and some recent examples from biofilms and other complex microbial communities.