Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-30-2009
Abstract
Background: In Escherichia coli, MinD-GFP fusion proteins show rapid pole to pole oscillations. The objective was to investigate the effects of extracellular cations on the subcellular oscillation of cytoplasmic MinD within Escherichia coli. Methodology/Principal Findings: We exposed bacteria to the extracellular cations Ca++, Mg++, the cationic antimicrobial peptide (CAP) protamine, and the cationic aminoglycoside gentamicin. We found rapid and substantial increases in the average MinD oscillation periods in the presence of any of these polyvalent cations. For Ca++ and Mg++ the increases in period were transient, even with a constant extracellular concentration, while increases in period for protamine or gentamicin were apparently irreversible. We also found striking interdependence in the action of the small cations with protamine or gentamicin, distorted oscillations under the action of intermediate levels of gentamicin and Ca++, and reversible freezing of the Min oscillation at high cationic concentrations. Conclusions/Significance: Intracellular Min oscillations provide a fast single-cell reporter of bacterial response to extracellular polycations, which can be explained by the penetration of polycations into cells. © 2009 Downing et al.
Recommended Citation
Benjamin P.B. Downing, et. al., (2009) Subcellular Min oscillations as a single-cell reporter of the action of polycations protamine and gentamicin on Escherichia coli.PLoS ONE4:9. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007285
Publication Title
PLoS ONE
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0007285
Comments
© PLoS ONE. Original version available at: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007285