JB
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Maki, N.
Right arrow Articles by Adler, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Maki, N.
Right arrow Articles by Adler, J.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2000, p. 4337-4342, Vol. 182, No. 15
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Motility and Chemotaxis of Filamentous Cells of Escherichia coli

Nazli Maki,1,dagger Jason E. Gestwicki,1 Ellen M. Lake,1 Laura L. Kiessling,1,2 and Julius Adler1,3,*

Departments of Biochemistry,1 Chemistry,2 and Genetics,3 University of Wisconsin---Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Received 5 January 2000/Accepted 5 May 2000

Filamentous cells of Escherichia coli can be produced by treatment with the antibiotic cephalexin, which blocks cell division but allows cell growth. To explore the effect of cell size on chemotactic activity, we studied the motility and chemotaxis of filamentous cells. The filaments, up to 50 times the length of normal E. coli organisms, were motile and had flagella along their entire lengths. Despite their increased size, the motility and chemotaxis of filaments were very similar to those properties of normal-sized cells. Unstimulated filaments of chemotactically normal bacteria ran and stopped repeatedly (while normal-sized bacteria run and tumble repeatedly). Filaments responded to attractants by prolonged running (like normal-sized bacteria) and to repellents by prolonged stopping (unlike normal-sized bacteria, which tumble), until adaptation restored unstimulated behavior (as occurs with normal-sized cells). Chemotaxis mutants that always ran when they were normal sized always ran when they were filament sized, and those mutants that always tumbled when they were normal sized always stopped when they were filament sized. Chemoreceptors in filaments were localized to regions both at the poles and at intervals along the filament. We suggest that the location of the chemoreceptors enables the chemotactic responses observed in filaments. The implications of this work with regard to the cytoplasmic diffusion of chemotaxis components in normal-sized and filamentous E. coli are discussed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin---Madison, Madison, WI 53706. Phone: (608) 262-3693. Fax: (608) 262-3453. E-mail: adler{at}biochem.wisc.edu.

dagger Present address: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2000, p. 4337-4342, Vol. 182, No. 15
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. Infect. Immun. Eukaryot. Cell
Mol. Cell. Biol. J. Virol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 2000 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.