Abstract
Past attempts at direct measurement of the mechanical characteristics of cells have shown little potential for use with bacteria. However, a technique based on micromanipulation has now been used to compare the mechanical properties of two species of bacteria; Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus epidermis. Gram-negative bacteria have traditionally been considered to be weaker than their Gram-positive counterparts on the basis of them being more susceptible to disintegration by mechanical stress. This observation has been corroborated using micromanipulation, which has directly quantified the differences in cell strength on the basis of bursting force. The bursting force of rapidly growing S. epidermis was found to vary from 3 and 34 μN with an average value of 13.8 μN (standard error 0.8 μN). The corresponding value for continuously growing E. coli (specific growth rate 0.5 h2212;1) was 3.8 μN (standard error 0.4 μN).
Corresponding author.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Baldwin, W.W., Sheu, M.J.-T., Bankston, P.W., Woldringh, C.L. (1988) Changes in buoyant density and cell size of Escherichia coli in response to osmotic shocks. Journal of Bacteriology 170, 452–455.
Edebo, L. (1969) Disintegration of cells. In Fermentation Advances (Perlman, D., ed.). Academic Press, NY, pp.249–271.
Isaac, L. and Ware, G.C. (1974) The flexibility ofbacterial cell walls. Journal of Applied Bacteriology 37, 335–339.
Keshavarz, E., Hoare, M., and Dunnill, P. (1987) Biochemical engineering aspects of cell disruption. In Verrall M.S. and Hudson M.J. (eds.), Separations for Biotechnology, pp. 62–79.
Lugtenberg, B. and Van Alphan, L. (1982) Molecular architecture and functioning of the outer membrane of Escherichia coli and other Gram-negative bacteria. Biochimica and Biophysica Acta. 737,51–115.
Marquis, R.E. (1968) Salt-induced contraction of bacterial cell walls. Journal of Bacteriology 95, 775–781.
Mashmoushy, H., Zhang, Z. and Thomas, C.R. (1998) Micromanipulation measurement of the mechanical properties of baker’s yeast cells. Biotechnology Techniques, 12, 925–929.
Mendelson, N.H. and Thwaites, J.J. (1988) Studies of Bacillus subtilis macrofiber twist states and bacterial thread biomechanics: assembly and material properties of cell walls. In Antibiotic Inhibition of Bacterial Cell Surface Assembly and Function (Actor, P., Daneo-Moore, L., Higgins, M.L., Salton, M.R.J. and Shockman, G.D., eds.), pp. 109–125.
Mitchell, P. and Moyle, J. (1956). Osmotic function and structure in bacteria. In Bacterial Anatomy Symposium Society of General Microbiology 6, 150–180.
Ou, L.-T. and Marquis, R.E. (1970) Electromechanical interactions in cell walls of Gram-positive cocci. Journal of Bacterology 101, 92–101.
Roberts, A.D. (1999). Determination of Fusarium graminearium mechanical properties by micromanipulation. PhD Thesis (submitted). The University of Birmingham.
Shockman, G.D., Barrett, J.F., (1983) Structure, junction and assembly of cell walls of Gram-positive bacteria. Annual Review of Microbiology 37, 501–527.
Srinorakutara, T. (1997) Mechanical Strength of Yeasts. PhD Thesis (unpublished). The University of Birmingham.
Stocks, S.M. and Thomas, C.R. (1999). The tensile strength of Saccharoployspora erythraea. European Journal of Histochemistry (Proceedings of the first international conference on analysis of microbial cells at the single cell level, Como, Italy, 1999).
Thwaites, J.J. and Mendelson, N.H. (1985) Biomechanics of bacterial walls: Studies of bacterial thread made from Bacillus subtilis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 82, 2163–2167.
Thwaites, J.J. and Surana, C. (1991) Mechanicalproperties of Bacillus subtilis cell walls: Effects of removing residual culture medium. Journal of Bacteriology 173, 197–203.
Thwaites, J.J. and Mendelson, N.H. (1991) Mechanical behaviour of bacterial cell walls. Advances in Microbial Physiology 32: 173–222.
Zhang, Z., Ferenczi, M.A., Lush, A.C. and Thomas, C.R. (1991) A novel micromanipulation technique for measuring the bursting strength of single mammalian cells. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 36, 208–210.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shiu, C., Zhang, Z., Thomas, C. (2001). A Comparison of the Mechanical Properties of Different Bacterial Species. In: Durieux, A., Simon, J.P. (eds) Applied Microbiology. Focus on Biotechnology, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46888-3_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46888-3_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-6858-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-306-46888-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive