Filtering Microbial Populations with a Magnetic Field
Nazareth, M.; Kilinc, E.; Deamer, D. W.
Show abstract
Magnetic fields strongly affect currents of electrically charged particles such as electrons, protons and other ions in solution. Because ionic currents of protons or sodium drive the rotation of bacterial flagella, it is possible that the motion of motile bacterial species will be affected if they swim through a strong magnetic field. We tested this prediction in mixed cultures of soil bacteria and observed that a magnetic field does in fact exert a filtering effect that alters the composition of the mixed population of motile species. We then monitored motility and growth to see if magnetic fields affected individual bacterial species (Vibrio, Enterobacter sp. and Pseudomonas sp.) The same magnetic field had no observable effect on motility or growth. Although magnetic fields may have served as a selective factor in the evolution of certain species such as magnetotactic motile bacteria, they do not appear to have a direct effect on the ionic current driving flagellar rotation.
Matching journals
The top 3 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Swimming direction of the glass catfish is responsive to magnetic stimulation 93%
- Divulging diazotrophic bacterial community structure in Kuwait desert ecosystems and their N2-fixation potential 93%
- A simple pyrocosm for studying soil microbial response to fire reveals a rapid, massive response by Pyronema species 92%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Microliter spotting and micro-colony observation: a rapid and simple approach for counting bacterial colony-forming units 91%
- TaxisPy: A Python-based Software for the Quantitative Analysis of Bacterial Chemotaxis 90%
- Bacterial Zombies And Ghosts: Production Of Inactivated Gram-Positive And Gram-Negative Species With Preserved Cellular Morphology And Cytoplasmic Content 90%
Similar papers in this journal
- Controlled irrigation suppresses methane emissions by reshaping the rhizosphere microbiomes in rice 92%
- Whats under the Christmas tree? Soil acidification alters fir tree rhizosphere bacterial and eukaryotic communities, their interactions, and functional traits 91%
- Response of total (DNA) and metabolically active (RNA) microbial communities in Miscanthus x giganteus cultivated soil to different nitrogen fertilization rates 91%
Similar papers in this journal
- Glutathione synthetase overexpression in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans improves halotolerance of iron oxidation 91%
- Heat activation and inactivation of bacterial spores. Is there an overlap? 91%
- The effects of soil depth on the structure of microbial communities in agricultural soils in Iowa, USA 91%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.