The effects of starvation on the transport of Escherichia coli in saturated porous media are dependent on pH and ionic strength. Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces 2012 Feb 01;90:129-36
Date
10/25/2011Pubmed ID
22019454Pubmed Central ID
PMC3229032DOI
10.1016/j.colsurfb.2011.10.010Scopus ID
2-s2.0-82355190194 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 20 CitationsAbstract
In this research, we investigate the effects of starvation on the transport of Escherichia coli K12 in saturated porous media. Particularly, we examine the relationship between the starvation effects and the pH and ionic strength of the electrolyte solutions used for cell starvation. E. coli K12 was cultured using either Luria-Bertani Miller (LB-Miller) broth, which contained 10 g/L of NaCl, or LB-Luria broth, which contained 0.5 g/L of NaCl. As both types of broths had similar pH (~7.2) they differed in ionic strengths. The bacterial cells were harvested at late-exponential phase and resuspended in buffered (pH=7.2) and non-buffered (pH=5.7) electrolyte solutions that had ionic strengths of 8.4mM or 168 mM, respectively. Column transport experiments were performed following 4, 25 and 52 h of cell starvation to evaluate the temporal changes in cell mobility. Our results showed that starvation led to a significant increase in the mobility of E. coli K12, particularly between 4 and 25 h, when both pH and ionic strength of the electrolyte solution were different from those of the growth media. The size, viability and surface properties (e.g., zeta potential, hydrophobicity, LPS sugar content, outer membrane protein profiles) of the bacterial cells were determined and related to the observed temporal variation patterns of cell mobility. We found that starvation in electrolyte solutions that had different pH and ionic strength from the growth media significantly lowered cell viability, which may be related to the temporal change in cell mobility under these specific conditions.
Author List
Walczak JJ, Wang L, Bardy SL, Feriancikova L, Li J, Xu SAuthor
Sonia L. Bardy in the Biological Sciences department at University of Wisconsin - MilwaukeeMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Bacterial Outer Membrane ProteinsBiological Transport
Chemotaxis
Culture Media
Escherichia coli
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Industrial Microbiology
Lipopolysaccharides
Microbial Viability
Osmolar Concentration
Porosity
