• KSBB Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.449-455
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• 1998

The bacterial motility in sand was studied with Alcaligenes xylosoxidans Y234 which is known as a strong decomposer of aromatic chemicals, especially toluene. Apparent motility coefficient (${\mu}$c,app) and apparent chemotaxis coefficient (${\mu}$c,app) for toluene were measured in the sands which have four different porosities. Adsorption ratio of Alcaligenes xylosoxidans Y234 on the sands was measured as 17%. The ramdom motility coefficients were 0.85∼1.68${\times}$10-3$\textrm{cm}^2$/sec, and decreased as the porosity of sands decreased. Apparent chemotaxis coefficients were measured as 1.1∼6.8${\times}$10-5$\textrm{cm}^2$/sec, and decreased as the porosity decreased and with time. The tendency of alcaligenes xylosoxidans Y234 movement towards toluene seemed very weak and showed little chemotaxis.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.743-748
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• 2012

This study presents the effects of micro-geometries on the swimming behavior of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. First, we have measured parameters of single-cell motility including cell speed, run duration time, and tumble angle under two dimensional space. The results are used to calculate motility coefficients in the width of microchannels ranging from 10 to $100{\mu}m$. Since the single-cell motility parameters measured depend on the interaction of flagella with the microchannel wall, the duration time of the running cell in restricted geometries is distinctively different. Therefore, the motility of bacteria is decreased by restricted geometries. This study suggests that microfluidic approach is useful tool for the analysis of bacterial motility under the restricted space and rapid analytical tool.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.325.1-325.1
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• 2002

Cell motility plays important physiological roles in embryogenesis. immune defense. wound healing. and metastasis of tumor cells. Cell motility of normal cells is tightly regulated. while tumor cell motility is aberrantly regulated or autoregulated. Autotaxin (ATX) is a 125-kDa glycoprotein. originally isolated from the conditioned medium of human melanoma A2058 cells. ATX stimulates random (chemokinetic) and directed (chemotactic) motility of human tumor cells at high picomolar to low nanomolar concentrations. (omitted)

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-51
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• 2023

Ras small GTPases are involved in regulating various cellular signaling pathways including cell migration, proliferation, and differentiation. Ras GTPase subfamily is comprised of 15 proteins; 11 Ras, 3 Rap, and one Rheb related protein. Some Ras proteins, such as RasC and RasG, have been identified for their major functions, but there are proteins whose functions have not been studied yet, such as RasU and RasX. Here, we investigated the roles of RasU in cell motility and development. RasU shows the highest homology with RasX. To investigate the functions of RasU, rasU null cells were used to observe the phenotype. Cells lacking RasU were larger and more spread than wild-type cells. These results indicate that RasU plays a negative role in cell spreading. In addition, we investigated the roles of RasU in cell motility and development of Dictyostelium cells and found that rasU null cells exhibited decreased random migration speed and delayed developmental process. These results suggest that RasU plays an important role in cell motility and development.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1609-1616
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• 2017

The complex roles of cell surface modification in the biofilm formation of Campylobacter jejuni, a major cause of worldwide foodborne diarrheal disease, are poorly understood. In a screen of mutants from random transposon mutagenesis, an insertional mutation in the eptC gene (cj0256) resulted in a significant decrease in C. jejuni NCTC11168 biofilm formation (<20%) on major food contact surfaces, such as polystyrene and borosilicate glass, when compared with wild-type cells (p < 0.05). In C. jejuni strain 81-176, the protein encoded by eptC modified cell surface structures, such as lipid A, the inner core of lipooligosaccharide, and the flagellar rod protein (FlgG), by attaching phosphoethanolamine. To assess the role of eptC in C. jejuni NCTC11168, adherence and motility tests were performed. In adhesion assays with glass surfaces, the eptC mutant exhibited a $0.77log\;CFU/cm^2$ decrease in adherence compared with wild-type cells during the initial 2 h of the assay (p < 0.05). These results support the hypothesis that the modification of cell surface structures by eptC affects the initial adherence in biofilm formation of C. jejuni NCTC11168. In motility tests, the eptC mutant demonstrated reduced motility when compared with wild-type cells, but wild-type cells with the transposon inserted in a gene irrelevant to biofilm formation (cj1111c) also exhibited decreased motility to a similar extent as the eptC mutant. This suggests that although eptC affects motility, it does not significantly affect biofilm formation. This study demonstrates that eptC is essential for initial adherence, and plays a significant role in the biofilm formation of C. jejuni NCTC11168.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.816-820
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• 2018

The stringent response (SR), which is activated by accumulation of (p)ppGpp under conditions of growth-inhibiting stresses, plays an important role on growth and virulence in Vibrio cholerae. Herein, we carried out a genome-wide screen using transposon random mutagenesis to identify genes controlled by SR in a (p)ppGpp-overproducing mutant strain. One of the identified SR target genes was flaC encoding flagellin. Genetic studies using flaC and SR mutants demonstrated that FlaC was involved in bacterial growth, toxin production, and normal flagellum function under conditions of high (p)ppGpp levels, suggesting FlaC plays an important role in SR-induced pathogenicity in V. cholerae.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.8
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• pp.589-596
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• 2019

${\beta}Pix$ is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for the Rho family small GTPases, Rac1 and Cdc42. It is known to regulate focal adhesion dynamics and cell migration. However, the in vivo role of ${\beta}Pix$ is currently not well understood. Here, we report the production and characterization of ${\beta}Pix$-KO mice. Loss of ${\beta}Pix$ results in embryonic lethality accompanied by abnormal developmental features, such as incomplete neural tube closure, impaired axial rotation, and failure of allantois-chorion fusion. We also generated ${\beta}Pix$-KO mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to examine ${\beta}Pix$ function in mouse fibroblasts. ${\beta}Pix$-KO MEFs exhibit decreased Rac1 activity, and defects in cell spreading and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced ruffle formation and chemotaxis. The average size of focal adhesions is increased in ${\beta}Pix$-KO MEFs. Interestingly, ${\beta}Pix$-KO MEFs showed increased motility in random migration and rapid wound healing with elevated levels of MLC2 phosphorylation. Taken together, our data demonstrate that ${\beta}Pix$ plays essential roles in early embryonic development, cell spreading, and cell migration in fibroblasts.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.259-265
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• 2012

A bacterial strain, CK214, exhibiting high motility on an LB agar (1.5%, w/v) surface was isolated from the environment. The formation of unusual agar shrinking around colonies on agar plates was observed. The strain grew on minimal media containing pure agar as a sole carbon source. The cell-free culture supernatant of CK214 generated a reduced form of sugar in the in vitro reaction with the use of pure agar as a substrate, suggesting the secretion of an agar-degrading enzyme. The CK214 strain showed swarming motility on the solid media containing a wide range of concentrations of agar (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0% w/v). Various tests, including Gram staining, API analysis, and phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences identified that the CK214 strain was a G(+) rod-shaped bacterium grouped in genus Paenibacillus. Electron microscopic analysis demonstrated that the P. CK214 strain is peritrichously flagellated. Through transposon random mutagenesis, several agar-degrading activity defective mutants (ADMs) were generated. These mutants will be used in the future experimentation for the study of the correlation between agar-degrading activity and motility.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1503-1507
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• 2006

Goats' milk adulteration with cows' milk is becoming a big problem. In the past, the urea-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis assay with different motility of ${\alpha}S1$-casein has been applied for the identification of cows' milk adulteration. The detection sensitivity is 1.0%. The aim of this study was to develop a faster and more sensitive method to detect cows' milk which may be present in adulterated goats' milk and goats' milk powder. The published primer was targeted at highly conserved regions in bovine mitochondrial DNA (a 271 bp amplicon). This amplicon was cloned and sequenced to further confirm bovine specific sequence. The chelex-100 was used to separate bovine somatic cells from goats' milk or goats' milk powder samples. Random sampling of different brands of goats' milk powder and tablets from various regions of Taiwan showed the adulterated rate was 20 out of 80 (25%) in goats' milk powders and 12 out of 24 (50%) in goats' milk tablets. With this system, as low as 0.1% cows' milk or cows' milk powder in goat milk or goat milk powder could be identified. This chelex DNA isolation approach provides a fast, highly reproducible and sensitive method for detecting the adulteration of goats' milk products.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.62-74
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• 2023

Plant pathogenic Pectobacterium species cause severe soft rot/blackleg diseases in many economically important crops worldwide. Pectobacterium utilizes plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) as the main virulence determinants for its pathogenicity. In this study, we screened a random mutant, M29 is a transposon insertion mutation in the metC gene encoding cystathionine β-lyase that catalyzes cystathionine to homocysteine at the penultimate step in methionine biosynthesis. M29 became a methionine auxotroph and resulted in growth defects in methionine-limited conditions. Impaired growth was restored with exogenous methionine or homocysteine rather than cystathionine. The mutant exhibited reduced soft rot symptoms in Chinese cabbages and potato tubers, maintaining activities of PCWDEs and swimming motility. The mutant was unable to proliferate in both Chinese cabbages and potato tubers. The reduced virulence was partially restored by a complemented strain or 100 µM of methionine, whereas it was fully restored by the extremely high concentration (1 mM). Our transcriptomic analysis showed that genes involved in methionine biosynthesis or transporter were downregulated in the mutant. Our results demonstrate that MetC is important for methionine biosynthesis and transporter and influences its virulence through Pcc21 multiplication in plant hosts.