High efficiency separation of microbial aggregates using capillary electrophoresis

Abstract Recent advances in the technique of capillary electrophoresis have demonstrated fast, highly efficient separation of mixtures of intact microbes. This paper describes the application of this technique for the separation of microbial aggregates of Micrococcus luteus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or Alcaligenes faecalis. The aggregates of these microbes were resolved into several highly efficient peaks with analysis times under 10 min and efficiencies approaching 1 000 000 plates m−1 in some cases. A reproducible relationship was found between the electrophoretic mobility and the aggregation number or size of the cluster under a given set of experimental conditions. Often, cellular aggregation was reversible with brief immersion in an ultrasound bath. This reversibility was confirmed by visual microscopy and electrophoretic data.