Correlated imaging with C₆₀-SIMS and confocal raman microscopy: Visualization of cell-scale molecular distributions in bacterial biofilms

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and confocal Raman microscopy (CRM) are combined to analyze the chemical composition of cultured Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, providing complementary chemical information for multiple analytes within the sample. Precise spatial correlation between SIMS and CRM images is achieved by applying a chemical microdroplet array to the sample surface which is used to navigate the sample, relocate regions of interest, and align image data. CRM is then employed to nondestructively detect broad molecular constituent classes-including proteins, carbohydrates, and, for the first time, quinolone signaling molecules-in Pseudomonas-derived biofilms. Subsequent SIMS imaging at the same location detects quinolone distributions in excellent agreement with the CRM, discerns multiple quinolone species which differ slightly in mass, resolves subtle differences in their distributions, and resolves ambiguous compound assignments from CRM by determining specific molecular identities via in situ tandem MS.