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ELECTROKINETICS AND CELL PHYSIOLOGY I.

Experimental Basis for Electrokinetic Cell Studies

Genetics Section of the Department of Biology, The University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Houston, Texas

ABSTRACT

JENSEN, ROY A. (The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Houston) AND FELIX L. HAAS. Electrokinetics and cell physiology. I. Experimental basis for electrokinetic cell studies. J. Bacteriol. 86:73–78. 1963.—The stable and regular electrokinetic pattern displayed by Bacillus subtilis cell populations was presented as the basis for precisely controlled experimental procedures. The course of electrokinetic behavior characteristic of a cell population was one which paralleled the overall physiology of the culture. The prospects of capitalizing upon this biological feature of the cell were considered in cases where portions of a cell population were separable with respect to some distinct physiological criterion. Such cell fractions may be associated with a discrete and detectable difference in the net charge residing upon the bacterial cell surface. Within a limited pore-size range, membrane filters lost or retained cells, depending upon the electrostatic interaction between cell and filter disc. Fractionation on membrane filters proved to be adjustable and could be controlled by selecting the proper ionic strength in the culture medium. Procedures of this kind have potential for the development of preparative techniques or, alternatively, as experimental vehicles for kinetic analysis.