Shape of nonseptated Escherichia coli is asymmetric

被引：16

作者：

Itan, E. ^{[1
,2
]}

Carmon, G. ^{[1
,2
]}

Rabinovitch, A. ^{[1
]}

Fishov, I. ^{[3
]}

Feingold, M. ^{[1
,2
]}

机构：

[1] Ben Gurion Univ Negev, Dept Phys, IL-84105 Beer Sheva, Israel

[2] Ben Gurion Univ Negev, Ilse Katz Ctr Nanotechnol, IL-84105 Beer Sheva, Israel

[3] Ben Gurion Univ Negev, Dept Life Sci, IL-84105 Beer Sheva, Israel

来源：

PHYSICAL REVIEW E | 2008年 / 77卷 / 06期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1103/PhysRevE.77.061902

中图分类号：

O35 [流体力学]; O53 [等离子体物理学];

学科分类号：

070204 ; 080103 ; 080704 ;

摘要：

The shape of Escherichia coli is approximately that of a cylinder with hemispherical caps. Since its size is not much larger than optical resolution, it has been difficult to quantify deviations from this approximation. We show that one can bypass this limitation and obtain the cell shape with subpixel accuracy. The resulting contours are shown to deviate from the hemisphere-cylinder-hemisphere shape. In particular, the cell is weakly asymmetric. Its two caps are different from each other and the sides are slightly curved. Most cells have convex sides. We discuss our results in light of several mechanisms that are involved in determining the shape of cells.

引用

页数：10

共 27 条

[1] Bacterial turgor pressure can be measured by atomic force microscopy [J].