TY - JOUR
T1 - Electric field effects on bacterial motility and chemotaxis
AU - Eisenbach, Michael
AU - Zimmerman, Jerald R.
AU - Ciobotariu, Adina
AU - Fischler, Henryk
AU - Korenstein, Rafi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Dr. Julius Adler for his suggestionto perform a viability test,a nd to Dr. Robert M. Macnab for his constructivec ommentso n this manuscript.T his study was supportedb y researchg rantst o M.E. from the U.S. National Instituteo f Allergy and InfectiousD iseasesa nd from the U.S.-Israel BinationalS cienceF oun-dation (B.S.F.), Jerusalem,I srael; and by a researchg rant to R.K. from Stiftung VolkswagenwerkM. .E. holds the BarechaF oundation Career DevelopmentC hair. R.K. is an incumbento f the Associationo f Friends of the WeizmannI nstituteo f Sciencei n Israel CareerD evelopmenCt hair.
PY - 1983/8
Y1 - 1983/8
N2 - The molecular nature of signal transduction in bacterial chemotaxis is virtually unknown. If the signal transduction is electrical in nature, an externally applied electric field should affect chemotactic behavior. We therefore studied the effect of an electromagnetically induced electric field on macroscopic assays of chemotaxis and motility of Escherichia coli. The electric field had opposing effects on these phenomena: it doubled motility, but inhibited chemotaxis by 70%. Controls for viability, for electrophoretic effects, and for other parameters that may affect chemotaxis, showed that this inhibition was specific for chemotaxis. These observations suggest that an electrical process may be involved in the chemotaxis machinery of E. coli. However, other interactions of the electric field with one or more of the membrane components of the chemotaxis machinery cannot be excluded.
AB - The molecular nature of signal transduction in bacterial chemotaxis is virtually unknown. If the signal transduction is electrical in nature, an externally applied electric field should affect chemotactic behavior. We therefore studied the effect of an electromagnetically induced electric field on macroscopic assays of chemotaxis and motility of Escherichia coli. The electric field had opposing effects on these phenomena: it doubled motility, but inhibited chemotaxis by 70%. Controls for viability, for electrophoretic effects, and for other parameters that may affect chemotaxis, showed that this inhibition was specific for chemotaxis. These observations suggest that an electrical process may be involved in the chemotaxis machinery of E. coli. However, other interactions of the electric field with one or more of the membrane components of the chemotaxis machinery cannot be excluded.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/0020798119
U2 - 10.1016/0302-4598(83)80077-4
DO - 10.1016/0302-4598(83)80077-4
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AN - SCOPUS:0020798119
SN - 0302-4598
VL - 10
SP - 499
EP - 510
JO - Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics
JF - Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics
IS - 5-6
ER -