A look beyond topography: transient phenomena of Escherichia coli cell division captured with high-speed in-line force mapping

Life on the nanoscale has been made accessible in recent decades by the development of fast and non-invasive techniques. High-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) is one such technique that sheds light on single protein dynamics. Extending HS-AFM to effortlessly incorporate mechanical property mapping while maintaining fast imaging speed allows us to look deeper than topography and reveal details of the nanoscale mechanisms that govern life. Here, we present high-speed in-line force mapping (HS-iFM), which enables the recording of mechanical properties and topography maps with high spatiotemporal resolution. Employing HS-iFM, a comprehensive study of the nanoscale mechanical properties of living Escherichia coli revealed localized stiffening and details during cell division, formation and diffusion of pores in the membrane, and the impact of depressurization of a cell. The frame time was as low as 15 seconds with a spatial resolution of 5.5 nm/pixel in topography and 22 nm/pixel in fo..., , , # A look beyond topography: transient phenomena of *Escherichia coli* cell division captured with high-speed in-line force mapping

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s60](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s60)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data was collected with high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM), and force maps were created using high-speed inline force mapping (HS-iFM).

Optical/fluorescence microscopy data was collected with an optical microscope using a 100x objective lens.

### Files and variables

#### File: ads3010\_SciAdv\_Ganser\_et\_al.zip

**Description:** All raw data for the publication \"A look beyond topography: transient phenomena of *Escherichia coli* cell division captured with high-speed in-line force mapping\" are included in folders named after the figures in the article. There are specific \"overview\"-files contained in each folder describing the contents. The file structure is as follows:

**Folder \"fig2_fig3_figS7_figS8_figS9\"**: Con...