Time-Resolved Fluorescence Assay for Measuring Oxygen Consumption Rates in Staphylococcus aureus.

Oxygen consumption is a fundamental characteristic of staphylococcal physiology reflecting the energy and metabolic state of the bacterial cell. During aerobic growth, oxygen consumption rates (OCR) depend on nutrient availability and vary at different growth stages. The measurement of oxygen consumption rates provides a versatile tool to characterize the impact of various mutations, environmental cues, and antibiotics on bacterial growth and fitness. In this chapter, we describe a MitoXpress Xtra-based oxygen consumption assay for fast and reliable determination of respiration rates in Staphylococcus aureus. This highly reproducible and simple method requires a minimal set of reagents and allows rapid screening of multiple samples through real-time determination of the OCR with an oxygen-sensing probe and fluorescence plate reader.