Background

Microorganisms play an important role in the food industry. Knowledge of the surface structural and physical properties of food microorganism cells is crucial to gain a detailed understanding of their functions in the natural environment and to explore them efficiently in various food processes. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), as a non-invasive examination tool, has been widely used to image the surface ultrastructure and to probe the physical properties of food microorganisms.

Scope and approach

In the current review, detailed applications of AFM in various food microorganisms are outlined, including surface imaging, biomolecular interactions, surface stiffness, and physicochemical properties, which have contributed to our knowledge of cell surface functions. The study emphasises the combination of AFM imaging with force determination, which added a new feature to the AFM technique; i.e., mapping of specific interactions. The combined use of AFM with other complementary techniques for a comprehensive description of cell surface is also reported.

Conclusions

and key findings: AFM has given promising results and thus could be a powerful technique for surface characterisation at nanoscale resolution and could provide new insight into the structure-function relationship of microbial surfaces.

中文翻译：

---

原子力显微镜在食品微生物中的应用

背景

微生物在食品工业中起着重要的作用。了解食物微生物细胞的表面结构和物理特性，对于深入了解其在自然环境中的功能并有效地在各种食品加工过程中发挥作用至关重要。原子力显微镜（AFM）作为一种非侵入性检查工具，已被广泛用于成像表面超微结构和探测食品微生物的物理特性。

范围和方法

在当前的审查中，概述了AFM在各种食品微生物中的详细应用，包括表面成像，生物分子相互作用，表面刚度和理化特性，这些都有助于我们了解细胞表面功能。这项研究强调了原子力显微镜成像与力测定的结合，这为原子力显微镜技术增加了新的特点。即，特定交互的映射。还报道了将AFM与其他补充技术结合使用以全面描述细胞表面的情况。

结论

和主要发现：AFM给出了令人鼓舞的结果，因此可以成为纳米级表面表征的有力技术，并且可以为微生物表面的结构-功能关系提供新的见解。