Fig. 2: Effect of channel width on L-form division.

a Lack of division in narrow microfluidic channels. Selected still bright field images of a time-lapse experiment. L-form cells of strain 4739 (LR2 ΩamyE::neo hbsU-gfp) were loaded into microfluidic chamber (Chip No. 2; channel widths 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0 µm) and grown at 32 °C. Images were captured every 5 min. The small cell on the left was in a 0.9 µm channel; the longer cell on the right was in a 0.8 µm channel. Full set of still images from this time-lapse series is shown in Supplementary Fig. 2. Scale bar, 5 µm. The experiment was performed more than three times independently, and multiple positions were imaged in each experiment, with similar results. b In wide channels cell division occurred more frequently. Selected still bright field frames from a time-lapse experiment. The cell shown was in the 2.2 µm wide channel (Chip No. 7). Red stars label cells that escaped from the channel. Strain: 4739 (LR2 ΩamyE::neo hbsU-gfp). Scale bar, 5 µm. The experiment was performed independently twice, and multiple positions were imaged in each experiment, with similar results. c Division frequency of L-forms grown in narrow vs wide channels. Only ‘in-channel’ division events occurred in the first 5 h of the time-lapse experiment were scored. Images from two different experiments were analysed for each channel width [Tabulated data].