Imaging the oxygen wave with a single bioluminescent bacterium.

We developed a capability of a monolayer of bioluminescent (BL) bacteria for spatiotemporally visualizing the heterogeneous distribution and dynamic evolution of interfacial oxygen concentration, resulting in the discovery of spontaneous and stochastic oxygen waves at the interface between the substrate and an undisturbed, apparently still solution. Wild type bacteria, , spontaneously emit light during the native metabolism processes, , bioluminescence. The emission intensity is sensitively regulated by oxygen concentration.