Template-Free Assembly in Living Bacterial Suspension under an External Electric Field.

ABSTRACT: Although template-assisted self-assembly methods are very popular in materials and biological systems, they have certain limitations such as lack of tunability and switchable functionality because of the irreversible association of cells and their matrix components. With an aim to achieve more tunability, we have made an attempt to investigate the self-assembly behavior of rod-shaped living bacteria subjected to an external alternating electric field using confocal microscopy. We demonstrate that rod-shaped living bacteria dispersed in a low salinity aqueous medium form different types of reversible freely suspended structures when subjected to an external alternating electric field. At low field strength, an oriented phase is observed where individual bacterium orients with its major axis

SUBMITTER: Samantaray K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6044750 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature