FILAMENT FORMATION BY ESCHERICHIA COLI AT INCREASED HYDROSTATIC PRESSURES

ZoBell, Claude E. (University of California, La Jolla), and Andre B. Cobet. Filament formation by Escherichia coli at increased hydrostatic pressures. J. Bacteriol. 87:710–719. 1964.—The reproduction as well as the growth of Escherichia coli is retarded by hydrostatic pressures ranging from 200 to 500 atm. Reproduction was indicated by an increase in the number of cells determined by plating on EMB Agar as well as by direct microscopic counts. Growth, which is not necessarily synonymous with reproduction, was indicated by increase in dry weight and protein content of the bacterial biomass. At increased pressures, cells of three different strains of E. coli tended to form long filaments. Whereas most normal cells of E. coli that developed at 1 atm were only about 2 μ long, the mean length of those that developed at 475 atm was 2.93 μ for strain R4, 3.99 μ for strain S, and 5.82 μ for strain B cells. Nearly 90% of the bacterial biomass produced at 475 atm by strain B was found in filaments exceeding 5 μ in length; 74.7 and 16.4% of the biomass produced at 475 atm by strains S and R4, respectively, occurred in such filaments. Strain R4 formed fewer and shorter (5 to 35 μ) filaments than did the other two strains, whose filaments ranged in length from 5 to >100 μ. The bacterial biomass produced at all pressures had approximately the same content of protein and nucleic acids. But at increased pressures appreciably more ribonucleic acid (RNA) and proportionately less deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was found per unit of biomass. Whereas the RNA content per cell increased with cell length, the amount of DNA was nearly the same in long filaments formed at increased pressure as in cells of normal length formed at 1 atm. The inverse relationship between the concentration of DNA and cell length in all three strains of E. coli suggests that the failure of DNA to replicate at increased pressure may be responsible for a repression of cell division and consequent filament formation.