Do bacteria have an electric permanent dipole moment?

In the scientific literature in the last 40 years, some data for the permanent dipole moment and the electric polarizability of Escherichia coli can be found [S.P. Stoylov, Colloid Electro-Optics - Theory, Techniques and Application, Academic Press, London, 1991]. In this paper the data based mainly on electro-optic investigation is considered as much as some dipolophoretic (most often called dielectrophoretic) studies. Serious grounds are found to doubt the conclusions made for the electric dipole moments of bacteria by one of the authors of this paper (SPS) and by some other researchers. This concerns both the permanent dipole moment and the electric charge dependent polarizabilities of E. coli. Here, along with the discussion of the old experimental data, new experimental data are shown for a strain of E. coli HB101. The conclusions from the analysis of the old and the new experimental data is that they do not provide correct evidence for the presence of a permanent dipole moment. It seems that all statements for the existence of electric permanent dipole moment in bacteria [S.P. Stoylov, Colloid Electro-Optics - Theory, Techniques and Application, Academic Press, London, 1991; S.P. Stoylov, S. Sokerov, I. Petkanchin, N. Ibroshev, Dokl. AN URSS 180 (1968) 1165; N.A. Tolstoy, A.A. Spartakov, A.A. Trusov, S.A. Schelkunova, Biofizika 11 (1966) 453; V. Morris, B. Jennings, J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. II 71 (1975) 1948; V. Morris, B. Jennings, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 55 (1978) 313; S.P. Stoylov, V.N. Shilov, S.S. Dukhin, S. Sokerov, I. Petkanchin, in: S.S. Dukhin (Ed.), Electro-optics of Colloids, Naukova Dumka, Kiev, 1977 (in Russian).] based on electro-optic studies are result of incorrect interpretation. Therefore, they should be further ignored.

Electro-optical investigations of the dipole moments of nanoparticles.

In this paper, the electric properties of polar nanoparticles are examined. Special attention is paid to the terminology, classification and the physical bases of the different electric moments. A short history of the electro-optic studies of dipole moments of nanoparticles and the electro-optic Conferences is presented. The connection of the polar properties with the particle electric charge is considered. The potential of the colloid electro-optics for studying the properties of anisometric, anisotropic polar nanoparticles is discussed in details. Examples of such studies are presented. A comparative analysis is made of the potential of dielectric, electro-optic and dielectrophoretic measurements for studying the electric properties, size, shape and structure of polar nanoparticles.

Electric light scattering from single-stranded DNA in linear polyacrylamide solutions.

The electric light scattering (ELS) of ssDNA (calf thymus, 10 kbp, 55 micrograms/mL) in denaturing polyacrylamide (PAA) solutions was studied as a function of applied sinusoidal electric field and polymer concentration. Electric fields of strengths up to 300 V/cm and of frequencies between 100 and 5000 Hz were applied. It was found that the ELS effect increases with the field strength and decreases at high frequencies. The dependence of the ELS effect of ssDNA on polymer concentration passes through a maximum at 1% PAA. The relaxation times of decay of the ELS effect increase with increasing polymer concentrations. It was demonstrated that ELS is a useful method for investigation of ssDNA behavior in the course of pulse-field electrophoresis in polymer solutions.

Properties and growth mechanism of the ordered aggregation of a model RNA by the HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein: an electron microscopy investigation.

NCp7, the nucleocapsid protein of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1, induces an ordered aggregation of RNAs, a mechanism that is thought to be involved in the NCp7-induced promotion of nucleic acid annealing. To further investigate this aggregation the morphology and the properties of the NCp7-induced aggregates of the model RNA homoribopolymer, polyA, were investigated by electron microscopy in various conditions. In almost all the tested conditions, the aggregates were spherical and consisted of a central dense core surrounded by a less dense halo made of NCp7-covered polyA molecules. The formation of these aggregates with a narrow distribution of sizes constitutes a distinctive feature of NCp7 over other single-stranded nucleic acid binding proteins. In most conditions, at the shortest times that can be reached experimentally, all the polyA molecules were already incorporated in small aggregates, suggesting that the nucleation step and the first aggregation events took place rapidly. The aggregates then orderly grew with time by fusion of the smaller aggregates to give larger ones. The aggregate halo was important in the fusion process by initiating the bridging between the colliding aggregates. In the presence of an excess of protein, the aggregates grew rapidly but were loosely packed and dissociated easily, suggesting adverse protein-protein interactions in the aggregates obtained in these conditions. In the presence of an excess of nucleotides, the presence of both amorphous nonspherical and slowly growing spherical aggregates suggested some changes in the mechanism of aggregate growth due to an incomplete covering of polyA molecules by NCp7. Finally, we showed that in the absence of added salt, the aggregate fusions were unfavored but not the initial events giving the first aggregates, the reverse being true in the presence of high salt concentrations (> or = 300 mM).

Ordered aggregation of ribonucleic acids by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 nucleocapsid protein.

The nucleocapsid protein NCp7, which is the major genomic RNA binding protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1, plays an important role in several key steps of the viral life cycle. Many of the NCp7 activities, notably the nucleic acid annealing and the genomic RNA wrapping ones, are thought to be linked to a nonspecific binding of NCp7 to its nucleic acid targets. The mechanism of these activities is still debated but several clues are in favor of an intermediate aggregation of nucleic acids by NCp7. To check and characterize the nucleic acid aggregating properties of NCp7, we investigated the interaction of NCp7 with the model RNA homopolymer, polyA, by quasielastic light scattering and optical density measurements. The ordered growth of monodisperse large particles independently of the nucleic acid size and the almost complete covering of polyA by NCp7 strongly suggested an ordered aggregation mechanism. The aggregate kinetics of growth in the optimum protein concentration range (> or = 2 microM) were governed by a so-called Ostwald ripening mechanism limited by transfer of NCp7-covered polyA complexes from small to large aggregates. The aggregation process was strongly dependent on both Na+ and Mg2+ concentrations, the optimum concentrations being in the physiological range. Similar conclusions held true when polyA was replaced by 16S + 23S ribosomal RNA, suggesting that the NCp7 aggregating properties were only poorly dependent on the nucleic acid sequence and structure. Finally, as in the NCp7 annealing activities, the basic regions of NCp7, but not the zinc fingers, were found critical in nucleic acid aggregation. Taken together, our data indicate that NCp7 is a highly efficient nucleic acid aggregating agent and strengthen the hypothesis that aggregation may constitute a transient step in various NCp7 functions.

Electro-optics of membrane electroporation in diphenylhexatriene-doped lipid bilayer vesicles.

The electric (linear) dichroisms observed in the membrane electroporation of salt-filled lipid bilayer vesicles (diameter O = 2 alpha = 0.32 micron; inside [NaCl] = 0.2 M) in isotonic aqueous 0.284 M sucrose-0.2 mM NaCl solution indicate orientation changes of the anisotropic light scattering centers (lipid head groups) and of the optical transition moments of the membrane-inserted probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH). Both the turbidity dichroism and DPH absorbance dichroism show peculiar features: (1) at external electric fields E > or = Esat the time course of the dichroism shows a maximum value (reversal): Esat = 4.0 (+/- 0.2) MV m-1, T = 293 K (20 degrees C), (2) this reversal value is independent of the field strength for E > or = Esat, (3) the dichroism amplitudes exhibit a maximum value Emax = 3.0 (+/- 0.5) MV m-1, (4) for the pulse duration of 10 microseconds there is one dominant visible normal mode, the relaxation rate increases up to tau-1 approximately 0.6 x 10(6) s-1 at Esat and then decreases for E > Esat. The data can be described in terms of local lipid phase transitions involving clusters Ln of n lipids in the pore edges according to the three-state scheme C<-->HO<-->HI, C being the closed bilayer state, HO the hydrophobic pore state and HI the hydrophilic or inverted pore state with rotated lipid and DPH molecules. At E > or = Esat, further transitions HO<-->HO* and HI<-->HI* are rapidly coupled to the C<-->HO transition, which is rate-limiting. The vesicle geometry conditions a cos theta dependence of the local membrane field effects relative to the E direction and the data reflect cos theta averages. The stationary induced transmembrane voltage delta phi (theta, lambda m) = -1.5 aEf(lambda m) magnitude of cos theta does not exceed the limiting value delta phi sat = -0.53 V, corresponding to the field strength Em,sat = -delta phi sat/d = 100 MV m-1 (10(3) kV cm-1), due to increasing membrane conductivity lambda m. At E = Esat, f(lambda m) = 0.55, lambda m = 0.11 mS m-1. The lipid cluster phase transition model yields an average pore radius of rp = 0.35 (+/- 0.05) nm of the assumed cylindrical pore of thickness d = 5 nm, suggesting an average cluster size of = 12 (+/- 2) lipids per pore edge. For E > Esat, the total number of DPH molecules in pore states approaches a saturation value; the fraction of DPH molecules in HI pores is 12 (+/- 2)% and that in HO pores is 48 (+/- 2)%. The percentage of membrane area P approximately (lambda m/lambda i) x 100% of conductive openings filled with the intravesicular medium of conductance lambda i = 2.2 S m-1 linearly increases from P approximately 0% (E = 1.8 MV m-1) to P = 0.017% (E = 8.5 MV m-1). Analogous estimations made by Kinosita et al. (1993) on the basis of fluorescence imaging data for sea urchin eggs give the same order of magnitude for P (0.02-0.2%). The increase in P with the field strength is collinear with the increase in concentration of HI and HI* states with the field strength, whereas the HO and HO* states exhibit a sigmoid field dependence. Therefore our data suggest that it is only the HI and HI* pore states which are conductive. It is noted that the various peculiar features of the dichroism data cannot be described by simple whole particle deformation.

Electric birefringence of polytetrafluoroethylene particles in agarose gels.

Electric birefringence studies of strongly elongated, rod-like particles of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in agarose gels show that the negative effect observed by semi-diluted aqueous suspensions at low frequencies and at low electric field strengths (the so called "anomaly') disappears. The absolute value of the low frequency effect increases 3-4 times and the amplitude of modulation decreases faster compared to that of the suspensions. This together with decreased decay relaxation times in gels make the possibilty that the PTFE particles orientation in gels is not due to dipolar but to electrophoretic orientation mechanism quite probable. Similar change in the orientation mechanism could be expected also for suspensions of higher concentrations. The further elucidation of the orientation mechanism using fractions with lower polydispersity, broader ranges of experimental conditions (particle concentration, ionic strength and composition, electric field strengths, frequencies, etc.) could be interest for several fields: colloid electro-optics and especially that of concentrated colloids, pulsed field gel electrophoresis of DNA (and especially its sinusoidal biased field variant) and of nucleoprotein complexes and for the gel research.

Electric polarization of polyelectrolyte and colloid media: dielectric versus electro-optic approach.

The theories of dielectric dispersion and of electric birefringence as a representative of electro-optic methods are considered and it is shown that they both depend in a similar way simply on the real part of the complex electric polarizability of the macromolecules or the particles. The latter also contains the permanent dipole moment. Experimental data on dielectric dispersion, electric birefringence and electric light scattering of strongly elongated, rod-like poly(tetrafluoroethylene) particles are compared and an attempt is made to extend the dielectric dispersion curve to lower frequencies using electric birefringence and electric light scattering data. Further, the experimental data on dielectric dispersion, electric light scattering, electro-orientation and dipolophoresis for the more complicated Escherichia coli particles are compared. Again, the possibility to extend the 10 kHz-100 MHz dielectric dispersion curve down below 1 Hz by using electric light scattering data is examined. The good matching of the dielectric dispersion and electric light scattering frequency curves found in the overlapping frequency range (10 kHz-5 MHz) essentially enhances the chance that dielectric dispersion below 1 MHz is related to alpha dispersion and not to electrode polarization. Thus it is not only possible to obtain additional information on the mechanism of polarization at lower-frequency dielectric dispersion, but also to extend our knowledge about the effective dielectric properties of biological complex fluids to frequencies essentially below 1 MHz. This could be important for the understanding of the effect of low-frequency electromagnetic fields on living matter.

Influence of cation binding on the electro-optically determined electric moments of purple membranes.

Analysis of the electro-optically determined permanent dipole moment and electric polarizability of purple membrane fragments reveals the complex nature of the membrane electric moments. The problem to distinguish between the contribution of the membrane structural charges (charged groups of the polypeptide chain and polar lipid headgroups), bound cations and the electric double layer structure deserves particular attention not only because of its importance for electro-optics but also in respect to the relation of the membrane surface electric properties to the membrane transport function. The removal of divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) bound to purple membrane in the native state induces a cation-free species of purple membrane (deionized--blue membrane) with drastically changed spectroscopic properties and function. The present paper summarizes our study on the electric moments of blue membrane and their changes during the blue to purple transition. We intended to provide an insight into the possible regulation of this reversible transition (purple-to-blue and blue-to-purple) through changes of the asymmetric charge distribution and the importance of the asymmetric interfacial charge distribution for the proton transfer in purple membranes. The changes in the electric moments (permanent and induced dipole moments) of purple membrane fragments upon di- and trivalent cations binding to cation-depleted purple membranes were studied by electric light scattering (rotational electrokinetics) in d.c. and a.c. electric fields, and by electric pulses with reversing polarity. The results show a recovery of the membrane charge asymmetry (permanent dipole moment) though not of the induced dipole moment.

Interfacial electric polarizability of purple membranes in solution.

An investigation of the scattered light (lambda = 632.8 nm) from purple membrane suspensions with different concentrations subjected to external AC and DC electric fields has been carried out. The electric pulses used were in the field strength range 0-3.2 X 10(4) Vm-1 and the frequency range 10 Hz-1 MHz, the pulse duration being less than or equal to 0.5 s. A concentration dependence of the relative changes in the scattered light intensity was obtained, the effect being positive on orienting the suspensions by an AC field at 1 and 10 kHz, and negative in the case of a DC field. The negative effects in the diluted samples decrease and turn positive as the strength of the field increases. The positive effects show the existence of an interfacial polarizability along the plane of the membrane, and the negative ones suggest the presence of a permanent dipole moment (p), perpendicular to the plane of the membrane. The values of gamma (induced polarizability) and p were found to be on the order of 10(-28)-10(-29) Fm2 and 10(-24) Cm, respectively. An explanation in terms of membrane aggregation for the observed dependence on concentration is given.