Fluctuations in adhesion behavior of dividing/budding mycobacterium sp. strains JLS, KMS, MCS: An AFM evaluation

AFM was used to evaluate topography and adhesion properties of dividing Gram-positive mycobacterium sp. strains JLS, KMS, and MCS. This research revealed that these three mycobacterium strains divided by budding, and the adhesion force of mother cells differed from their daughter (or budding) cells. At the early stage of division, the adhesion force of the mother cell was larger than that of newly formed daughter cell (10–30%); however, at the anaphase of division, the mother cell possessed smaller adhesion force compared with daughter cell (4–15%). According to the range of the adhesion force measured on the dividing (budding) mycobacterium JLS (M.JLS) cells, the schematic division (or budding) models were proposed, and these mycobacterium strains were found to follow well these division models. Altogether, AFM-based topography and adhesion force measurements at the nanoscale resolution may offer new insightful views that would further facilitate the understanding and elucidation of the biophysical behaviors during division (or budding) processes of microorganisms.