Ultrasonication on a microfluidic chip to lyse single and multiple Pseudo‐nitzschia for marine biotoxin analysis

Abstract

We present a microfluidic platform, which provides a simple and efficient means for handling and processing Pseudo-nitzschia, a neurotoxin-producing marine algae. Currently, analyzing the production of such toxins is complicated by multiple environmental factors and high variability among individual Pseudo-nitzschia species. To address this issue, we developed a device that can precisely trap single and multiple cells for subsequent lysis to extract relevant intracellular molecules. Our results show a cell trapping efficiency of up to 96%, which is achieved by hydrodynamic flow focusing. Additionally, complete cell lysis via ultrasonication can be accomplished within a few seconds. This platform can be applied to other algae and non-algae cell types with minimal modification, thus providing a valuable tool for studying biological intracellular mechanisms at the single and multi-cell level.

Selective separation of microalgae cells using inertial microfluidics

“…Writ large, these emerging microfluidic technologies have made dramatic advances in a wide range of biomedical (Rafeie et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2012), point of care (Yetisen et al, 2013), drug screening (Skommer & Wlodkowic, 2015), environmental analysis (Jokerst et al, 2012), chemical and biological detection (Sei et al, 2014), and other applications. On the subject of this report, these microfluidic systems have been employed for on-chip detection of microalgal cells (Li et al, 2016), cell culturing (Paik et al, 2017), cell sorting (Juang & Chang, 2016;Schaap et al, 2016), gene sequencing and genome studies (Ghim et al, 2010), cell lysis (Wu et al, 2011), harvesting (Hønsvall et al, 2016;Shakeel Syed et al, 2017) and microbial bioenergy (Han et al, 2013) applications.…”

Microfluidic technology for plankton research

“…However, several studies proposed some advanced microfluidic systems suitable for toxin measurement. For example, Wu et al , simply created a microfluidic chip capable to trap single cells and control their lyses by ultrasonication [ 61 ]. Although the system is purposed for this content, no biological assay is described in this study.…”

A Microfabricated, Flow-Driven Grinding Mill for Mechanical Cell Lysing

“…Nonchemical lysing methods have also been described . These methods include mechanical, − optical, electrical, − and/or acoustic − techniques. Electric, optic, and acoustic approaches create strong electromagnetic or sonification fields to disrupt cell membranes and more liable cell walls.…”