molecules Review From Differential Stains to Next Generation Physiology: Chemical Probes to Visualize Bacterial Cell Structure and Physiology Jonathan Hira 1, Md. Jalal Uddin 1 , Marius M. Haugland 2 and Christian S. Lentz 1,* 1 Research Group for Host-Microbe Interactions, Department of Medical Biology and Centre for New Antibacterial Strategies (CANS), UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway;
[email protected] (J.H.);
[email protected] (M.J.U.) 2 Department of Chemistry and Centre for New Antibacterial Strategies (CANS), UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Academic Editor: Steven Verhelst Received: 30 September 2020; Accepted: 23 October 2020; Published: 26 October 2020 Abstract: Chemical probes have been instrumental in microbiology since its birth as a discipline in the 19th century when chemical dyes were used to visualize structural features of bacterial cells for the first time. In this review article we will illustrate the evolving design of chemical probes in modern chemical biology and their diverse applications in bacterial imaging and phenotypic analysis. We will introduce and discuss a variety of different probe types including fluorogenic substrates and activity-based probes that visualize metabolic and specific enzyme activities, metabolic labeling strategies to visualize structural features of bacterial cells, antibiotic-based probes as well as fluorescent conjugates to probe biomolecular uptake pathways. Keywords: activity-based probe; antibiotic conjugate; bacterial imaging; bacterial uptake; fluorogenic substrate; metabolic labeling; phenotypic heterogeneity 1. Introduction—From 19th Century Microbiology to Modern Day Chemical Biology If chemical biology can be defined as the ‘interrogation of biological systems with chemical approaches’ [1], we must acknowledge some of the first microbiologists as chemical biologists.