Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA.
Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 13;9(1):11745. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48113-4.
Silver (Ag) in various forms have recently gained broad interest and been revisited due to their promising antimicrobial effects. Here we report our study on the morphological dynamics of live bacteria when subjected to Ag ions. Using time-lapse microscopy, we observed oscillations of cell-length for a large fraction of bacteria exposed to 60 μM of Ag ions. In addition, we found that the responses of bacteria to Ag ions were heterogeneous. We quantified the oscillations of cell-length with power spectral density, which appeared different from that of bacteria growing in the absence of Ag ions. Furthermore, a model similar to the predator-prey argument was developed to understand the observed oscillations of cell-length upon exposure to Ag ions. This model not only successfully produced the oscillations but also explained the observed heterogeneity in the bacterial responses to Ag ions.
银（Ag）以各种形式因其有前景的抗菌效果而受到广泛关注和重新研究。在这里，我们报告了我们对活体细菌在银离子作用下形态动力学的研究。通过延时显微镜观察，我们发现大量暴露于 60 μM 银离子的细菌会发生细胞长度的振荡。此外，我们发现细菌对银离子的反应具有异质性。我们用功率谱密度量化了细胞长度的振荡，其表现与不存在银离子时细菌的生长情况不同。此外，我们还建立了一个类似于捕食者-猎物关系的模型来理解细菌在暴露于银离子时观察到的细胞长度振荡。该模型不仅成功地产生了振荡，还解释了细菌对银离子反应的观察到的异质性。
