Cell Sorting of Formalin-Treated Pathogenic <i>Mycobacterium paratuberculosis</i> Expressing GFP

TL;DRAbstract

GFP is widely used as a molecular tool for the study of microbial pathogens. However, the manipulation of these pathogenic microorganisms poses a health threat to the laboratory worker, requiring biosafety level II or III containment. Although the GFPfluorophore is tolerant toformalin, a thorough analysis of this treatment on fluorescent output in prokaryotic systems has not been described. In addition, the analysis of microorganisms expressing GFP often depends on specialized equipment, which may not be housed in biosafety level II or III laboratories. Therefore, we sought to develop a safe and effective method for manipulating the GFP-expressing pathogenic bacterium Mycobacterium avium subsp, paratuberculosis (M. paratuberculosis) utilizing a formalin treatment that would permit the analysis of GFP fluorescence without requiring stringent biosafety containment. We demonstrate that formalin-treated M. paratuberculosis expresses 50% less fluorescence than viable cells, but this reducti

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