Lethality mechanisms in Escherichia coli induced by intense sub-microsecond electrical pulses

In this letter, the authors present the inactivation kinetics of cells of Escherichia coli and its mutants following treatment with high-intensity electrical pulses of 700 and 32 ns durations. Their experimental results suggest that bacterial inactivation by 700 ns pulses is consistent with a mechanism of reversible electroporation, whereas inactivation by 32 ns pulses may occur as a result of damage to intracellular components. They believe that their results represent a first step towards elucidating the mechanism of lethality of submicrosecond pulses of different durations in prokaryotes. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.