Biotium, a leading innovator of fluorescent dyes for life science research, has introduced its breakthrough BactoView Dead Stains and BactoView Viability Kits. These products were carefully designed for easy usage and improved dead cell selectivity for enhanced microbial viability determination. With precise dead cell detection being vital for accurate analysis, Biotium’s BactoView Dead Stains deliver significant improvements in this procedure.

Unlike the traditional viability dyes propidium iodide and ethidium homodimer, Biotium’s BactoView Dead Stains provide brighter dead cell staining with minimal background interference. The specially-designed chemical structures of the dyes effectively exclude them from live cells of both gram-negative and particularly gram-positive strains, selectively labelling dead cells. There is only a single 30-minute staining step with no additional wash requirements for ease-of-use, with the flexibility of seven available dye colours ranging from green to near-IR for microscopy or flow cytometry analysis.

BactoView Dead stains also are included in two new BactoView Viability Kits, enabling convenient two-colour staining of both live and dead bacteria for clear viability assessment of all cells in a sample. Each kit includes a BactoView Dead Stain, with either red or far-red fluorescence for dead cell labelling, and a BactoView Viability Green Counterstain for staining both live and dead bacteria. The kits are compatible with gram-positive and gram-negative strains and need only a single half-hour incubation without washing, offering both flexibility and convenience.

“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 director of Bioscience, Dr Lori Roberts, said. With both BactoView Dead Stains and Viability Kits, researchers can now attain unprecedented flexibility and accuracy in their experiments.

Features and benefits of the BactoView Dead Stains

• Highly selective: Vibrant staining of dead cells with minimal background.
• Compatibility: Works seamlessly with both gram-positive and gram-negative strains.
• Simplicity: Requires a single 30-minute staining step, eliminating additional wash steps.
• Versatility: Available in 7 colours ranging from green to near-IR for diverse experimental needs.

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.

For more information, visit: https://biotium.com/product/bactoview-dead-stains/

Features and benefits of BactoView Viability Kits

• Two-colour staining: Labels both live and dead bacteria for comprehensive analysis.
• Compatibility: Works seamlessly with gram-positive and gram-negative strains.
• Ease of use: Requires only a single 30-minute staining step, eliminating additional wash steps.
• Options: Available with either a red or far-red BactoView Dead Stain.

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.

For more information, visit: https://biotium.com/product/bactoview-viability-kits/