SERS Imaging Analyses of Bacterial Cells among Plant Tissues

Abstract A chemical imaging method to surveil mass bacterial cells among plant tissues in situ is reported. Bacteria cells were pre-labelled with 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid for complexation with gold nanoparticles. Surface-enhanced Raman spectra were collated en masse to generate panoramic chemical images of bacteria populations. The approach was successfully employed to study the distribution of mass bacteria populations directly on and in selected plant tissues. This study demonstrates the great potential for SERS imaging to study bacterial cells among complex matrices in some ways that are superior to electron and fluorescent microscopies.