Antibiotic resistance in bacterial species is a widespread predicament that the scientific community ceaselessly continues to combat. Unraveling the roles of functional membrane microdomains (FMMs) may hold answers as to how small molecule interactions with microbial cells can be altered and tuned. To extract dynamics in these nanoscale regions, we are leveraging the interface specificity of second harmonic generation (SHG). We will show how SHG is uniquely sensitive to natural changes in membrane composition of living Gram-positive bacteria and in the presence of exogenous FMM disruptors. Further, we will demonstrate its capability to extract how disrupting these membrane domains alters small molecule uptake. Overall, SHG shows exciting promise to provide new insight into the complex and dynamic heterogeneity of living cell membranes.

Second harmonic generation for probing domains in living membranes

ACS Fall 2021

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