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Biotium introduces new highly-selective stains for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria

October 18, 2023

New BactoView™ Dead Stains and BactoView™ Viability Kits help simplify and improve highly selective dead cell staining

Biotium, a leading innovator of fluorescent dyes for life science research, proudly announces the launch of 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 labeling 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 colors ranging from green to near-IR for microscopy or flow cytometry analysis.

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.

BactoView™ Dead stains also are included in two new BactoView™ Viability Kits, enabling convenient two-color 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 labeling, 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.

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.

“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, excitedly comments. With both BactoView™ Dead Stains and Viability Kits, researchers can now attain unprecedented flexibility and accuracy in their experiments. These products grow Biotium's vast repertoire as part of our commitment to life science innovation.

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 colors ranging from green to near-IR for diverse experimental needs.

For more information about BactoView™ Dead Stains, please visit the product page.

Features and Benefits of BactoView™ Viability Kits:

  • Two-Color 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.

For more information about BactoView™ Viability Kits, please visit the product page.

Biotium also offers a wide variety of other fluorescent dyes and assays kits for staining bacteria, yeast, and fungi. Dyes for assessing cell viability and bacterial gram stain type, and a complete toolkit of reagents for microbial viability PCR are available as well.

About Biotium

Biotium is a leading life science reagent manufacturer and supplier devoted to providing high-quality and innovative fluorescent tools that fuel scientific discovery. Our collaborative team of experienced chemists and biologists, who are at the forefront of fluorescent dye design, apply chemistry-based principles toward producing solutions for unmet challenges in life science and medical research. Since its founding in 2001, Biotium has developed over 30 patented technologies that have been licensed to leading life science technology companies worldwide.


Categories: Biotechnology, Microscopy & Imaging
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