BactoView™ Dead is less permeant to live gram-positive bacteria than other dead cell stains like EthD-III. S. epidermidis cultures were left untreated or heat-killed, then stained with 5 uM Ethidium Homodimer III (EthD-III) or 1X BactoView™ Dead 570/585. Cells were stained in medium for microscopy or PBS for flow cytometry. EthD-III stains many live S. epidermidis cells, resulting in poor live/dead discrimination, while BactoView™ Dead allows clear discrimination between live and dead cell populations. Gray peaks: Unstained cells; Blue peaks: stained live cells; Red peaks: stained heat-killed cells.
Live or heat-killed cultures of B. subtilis stained with the BactoView™ Viability Green/Red kit and imaged by confocal microscopy. Dead cells are stained red with BactoView™ Dead 570/585, all cells are stained green with BactoView™ Green Viability Counterstain. Co-stained cells appear yellow in the merged images.

Enhanced stains for gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria

Dec 04 2023

Biotium, a developer of fluorescent dyes for life science research, announces the release of its revolutionary BactoView™ Dead Stains and BactoView™ Viability Kits. These innovations aim to simplify and enhance dead cell staining for improved microbial viability determination in microbiological research.

The BactoView™ Dead Stains, distinct from traditional viability dyes, such as propidium iodide and ethidium homodimer, offer brighter dead cell staining with minimal background interference. Specifically designed chemical structures exclude the dyes from live cells, ensuring selective labelling of dead cells in both gram-negative and gram-positive strains. The staining process requires just a single 30-minute step, without additional wash requirements, providing user-friendly convenience. Moreover, researchers benefit from the flexibility of choosing from seven available dye colours for microscopy or flow cytometry analysis, ranging from green to near-infrared.

Included in two new BactoView™ Viability Kits, the BactoView™ Dead stains facilitate two-colour staining of live and dead bacteria, allowing clear viability assessment in a single sample. Each kit comprises a BactoView™ Dead Stain, available in red or far-red fluorescence for dead cell labelling, and a BactoView™ Viability Green Counterstain for staining both live and dead bacteria. These kits maintain compatibility with gram-positive and gram-negative strains, requiring only a single 30-minute incubation without washing, offering unparalleled flexibility and convenience to researchers.

Dr Lori Roberts, Director of Bioscience at Biotium, expresses enthusiasm for these advancements, stating: "These dyes and kits are a much-needed improvement for microbiological research, particularly for gram-positive stains that don’t work well with existing dead cell dyes." Biotium's commitment to life science innovation is evident in the remarkable flexibility and accuracy these products bring to researchers' experiments.

Biotium's BactoView™ Dead Stains and Viability Kits expand the company's extensive portfolio, reinforcing its dedication to advancing life science research.

Biotium also offers a comprehensive range of fluorescent dyes and assay kits for staining bacteria, yeast, and fungi, including dyes for cell viability assessment, bacterial gram stain typing, and a complete toolkit of reagents for microbial viability PCR.