1. Phenotypic plasticity of Escherichia coli upon exposure to physical stress induced by ZnO nanorods
- Author
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Hans A.R. Bluyssen, Wojciech Nogala, Marta Janczuk-Richter, Lukasz Dziewit, Kinga Matuła, Barbara Peplińska, Stefan Jurga, Mikołaj Grzeszkowiak, S. Suski, Henryk Bilski, Jan Paczesny, Joanna M. Łoś, Natalia Derebecka, Robert Hołyst, Elzbieta Wyroba, Adrian Silesian, Joanna Wesoly, Przemyslaw Decewicz, Łukasz Richter, and Marcin Łoś
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Molecular biology ,lcsh:Medicine ,medicine.disease_cause ,Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ,Bacterial cell structure ,Article ,Cell wall ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Stress, Physiological ,medicine ,Escherichia coli ,lcsh:Science ,chemistry.chemical_classification ,Phenotypic plasticity ,Multidisciplinary ,Nanotubes ,biology ,Environmental microbiology ,lcsh:R ,Periplasmic space ,biology.organism_classification ,Amino acid ,Citric acid cycle ,030104 developmental biology ,chemistry ,Mutation ,Biophysics ,lcsh:Q ,Zinc Oxide ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Bacteria - Abstract
Evolution of bacteria to selective chemical pressure (e.g. antibiotics) is well studied in contrast to the influence of physical stressors. Here we show that instantaneous physical stress in a homogeneous environment (without concentration gradient) induces fast adaptation of Escherichia coli. We exposed E. coli to a large number of collisions of around 105 per bacterium per second with sharp ZnO nanorods. The pressure exerted on the bacterial cell wall was up to 10 GPa and induced phenotype changes. The bacteria’s shape became more spherical, the density of their periplasm increased by around 15% and the average thickness of the cell wall by 30%. Such E. coli cells appeared almost as Gram-positive bacteria in the standard Gram staining. Additionally, we observed a combination of changes occurring at the genomic level (mutations identified in form of single nucleotide polymorphisms) and down-regulation of expression of 61 genes encoding proteins involved in β-oxidation of fatty acids, glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, as well as uptake of amino acids and enzyme cofactors. Thus, we show that bacteria undergo phenotypic changes upon instantaneous, acute physical stress without any obviously available time for gradual adaptation.
- Published
- 2019