Studying Intracellular pH of Bacteria with Fluorescent Tools

Abstract

This perspective discusses the relevance of studying the intracellular pH of pathogenic bacteria. Acidic environments trigger phenotype switches, increasing stress tolerance and antibiotic persistence – key challenges in treating bacterial infections. Understanding these phenotypic adaptations under clinically relevant stress conditions is important for elucidating bacterial survival mechanisms. Here, we discuss fluorescent tools to monitor pH homeostasis in bacterial cells and how advances in this field could shed light on pathogen resilience to antibiotics and human immune responses.