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In Vivo study of naturally deformed Escherichia coli bacteria

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Abstract

A combination of light-microscopy and image processing has been applied to study naturally deformed Escherichia coli under in vivo condition and at the order of sub-pixel high-resolution accuracy. To classify deflagellated non-dividing E. coli cells to the rod-shape and bent-shape, a geometrical approach has been applied. From the analysis of the geometrical data which were obtained of image processing, we estimated the required effective energy for shaping a rod-shape to a bent-shape with the same size. We evaluated the energy of deformation in the naturally deformed bacteria with minimum cell manipulation, under in vivo condition, and with minimum influence of any external force, torque and pressure. Finally, we have also elaborated on the possible scenario to explain how naturally deformed bacteria are formed from initial to final-stage.

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Acknowledgments

It is a pleasure to thank Howard C. Berg and Karen Fahrner for kindly providing the E. coli strain HCB137. Special thanks go to Conrad L. Woldringh for his help in providing the strain, his expert advices and very interesting discussions. His suggestions and remarks significantly improved this study. We are immensely grateful to Ramin Golestanian for the original idea of the manuscript. We would like to acknowledge Ramin Golestanian, M. Faez Miri, Daivid Nelson, Ariel Amir, Nader Rasouli, and Jafar Amjad for enlightening remarks.

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  1. Department of Nanobiotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Sharareh Tavaddod & Hossein Naderi-Manesh

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  1. Sharareh Tavaddod
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  2. Hossein Naderi-Manesh
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Correspondence to Hossein Naderi-Manesh.

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Tavaddod, S., Naderi-Manesh, H. In Vivo study of naturally deformed Escherichia coli bacteria. J Bioenerg Biomembr 48, 281–291 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10863-016-9658-8

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