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Full-Text Articles in Biological and Chemical Physics

Morphological Phenotypes, Cell Division, And Gene Expression Of Escherichia Coli Under High Concentration Of Sodium Sulfate, Khanh Nguyen, Pradeep Kumar Jan 2022

Morphological Phenotypes, Cell Division, And Gene Expression Of Escherichia Coli Under High Concentration Of Sodium Sulfate, Khanh Nguyen, Pradeep Kumar

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sodium and sulfate ions are among the suggested abundant ions on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. In order to investigate the potential habitability of Europa, we study the effects of sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) on a non-halophilic bacterium by subjecting Escherichia coli (E. coli) to a wide range of Na2SO4 concentrations (0–1.0 m). We discover that, as the concentration of sodium sulfate increases, the biomass doubling time increases and the cell growth is completely inhibited at 1.0" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-height: none; display: inline; line-height: normal; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: left; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: …


A Machine Learning Algorithm For Identifying And Tracking Bacteria In Three Dimensions Using Digital Holographic Microscopy, Manuel Bedrossian, Marwan El-Kholy, Daniel Neamati, Jay Nadeau Feb 2018

A Machine Learning Algorithm For Identifying And Tracking Bacteria In Three Dimensions Using Digital Holographic Microscopy, Manuel Bedrossian, Marwan El-Kholy, Daniel Neamati, Jay Nadeau

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM) is an emerging technique for three-dimensional imaging of microorganisms due to its high throughput and large depth of field relative to traditional microscopy techniques. While it has shown substantial success for use with eukaryotes, it has proven challenging for bacterial imaging because of low contrast and sources of noise intrinsic to the method (e.g. laser speckle). This paper describes a custom written MATLAB routine using machine-learning algorithms to obtain three-dimensional trajectories of live, lab-grown bacteria as they move within an essentially unrestrained environment with more than 90% precision. A fully annotated version of the software used …


An Experiment-Based Model Quantifying Antimicrobial Activity Of Silver Nanoparticles On Escherichia Coli, Mohammad A. Haque, Riku Imamura, George A. Brown, Venkata R. Krishnamurthi, Isabelle I. Niyonshuti, Tiffany Marcelle, Leanne E. Mathurin, Jingyi Chen, Yong Wang Dec 2017

An Experiment-Based Model Quantifying Antimicrobial Activity Of Silver Nanoparticles On Escherichia Coli, Mohammad A. Haque, Riku Imamura, George A. Brown, Venkata R. Krishnamurthi, Isabelle I. Niyonshuti, Tiffany Marcelle, Leanne E. Mathurin, Jingyi Chen, Yong Wang

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are well known to exhibit antimicrobial effects through plausible interactions with proteins and/or deoxyribonucleic acid inside the bacteria. Yet a quantitative understanding on the antimicrobial activities of AgNPs remains obscure. Here we conducted in-depth kinetic growth assays and colony-forming unit (CFU) assays on Escherichia coli (E. coli) cultured in AgNPs or Ag ion-containing growth media. Compared to the Ag-absent culture medium, it was found that the growth rate of the bacteria remained unaffected but the lag time of the bacterial growth was extended due to the presence of AgNPs or Ag ions. From the CFU-based time-kill curves, …


Mixing Times Of Organic Molecules Within Secondary Organic Aerosol Particles: A Global Planetary Boundary Layer Perspective, Adrian M. Maclean, Christopher L. Butenhoff, James W. Grayson, Kelley Barsanti, Jose L. Jimenez, Allan K. Bertram Nov 2017

Mixing Times Of Organic Molecules Within Secondary Organic Aerosol Particles: A Global Planetary Boundary Layer Perspective, Adrian M. Maclean, Christopher L. Butenhoff, James W. Grayson, Kelley Barsanti, Jose L. Jimenez, Allan K. Bertram

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

When simulating the formation and life cycle of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) with chemical transport models, it is often assumed that organic molecules are well mixed within SOA particles on the timescale of 1 h. While this assumption has been debated vigorously in the literature, the issue remains unresolved in part due to a lack of information on the mixing times within SOA particles as a function of both temperature and relative humidity. Using laboratory data, meteorological fields, and a chemical transport model, we estimated how often mixing times are < 1 h within SOA in the planetary boundary layer (PBL), the region of the atmosphere where SOA concentrations are on average the highest. First, a parameterization for viscosity as a function of temperature and RH was developed for α-pinene SOA using room-temperature and low-temperature viscosity data for α-pinene SOA generated in the laboratory using mass concentrations of ∼ 1000 µg m−3. Based on this parameterization, the mixing times within α-pinene SOA are < 1 h for 98.5 % and 99.9 % of the occurrences in the PBL during January and July, respectively, when concentrations are significant (total organic aerosol concentrations are > 0.5 µg m−3 at the surface). Next, as a starting …


Robust Nonparametric Quantification Of Clustering Density Of Molecules In Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy, Shenghang Jiang, Seongjin Park, Sai Divya Challapalli, Jingyi Fei, Yong Wang Jun 2017

Robust Nonparametric Quantification Of Clustering Density Of Molecules In Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy, Shenghang Jiang, Seongjin Park, Sai Divya Challapalli, Jingyi Fei, Yong Wang

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report a robust nonparametric descriptor, J'(r), for quantifying the density of clustering molecules in single-molecule localization microscopy. J'(r), based on nearest neighbor distribution functions, does not require any parameter as an input for analyzing point patterns. We show that J'(r) displays a valley shape in the presence of clusters of molecules, and the characteristics of the valley reliably report the clustering features in the data. Most importantly, the position of the J'(r) valley ([Formula: see text]) depends exclusively on the density of clustering molecules (ρc). Therefore, it is ideal for direct estimation of the clustering density of molecules in …


Small Quantum Dots Conjugated To Nanobodies As Immunofluorescence Probes For Nanometric Microscopy, Yong Wang, En Cai, Tobias Rosenkranz, Pinghua Ge, Kai Wen Teng, Sung Jun Lim, Andrew M. Smith, Hee Jung Chung, Frederick Sachs, William N. Green, Philip Gottlieb, Paul R. Selvin Nov 2014

Small Quantum Dots Conjugated To Nanobodies As Immunofluorescence Probes For Nanometric Microscopy, Yong Wang, En Cai, Tobias Rosenkranz, Pinghua Ge, Kai Wen Teng, Sung Jun Lim, Andrew M. Smith, Hee Jung Chung, Frederick Sachs, William N. Green, Philip Gottlieb, Paul R. Selvin

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Immunofluorescence, a powerful technique to detect specific targets using fluorescently labeled antibodies, has been widely used in both scientific research and clinical diagnostics. The probes should be made with small antibodies and high brightness. We conjugated GFP binding protein (GBP) nanobodies, small single-chain antibodies from llamas, with new ∼7 nm quantum dots. These provide simple and versatile immunofluorescence nanoprobes with nanometer accuracy and resolution. Using the new probes we tracked the walking of individual kinesin motors and measured their 8 nm step sizes; we tracked Piezo1 channels, which are eukaryotic mechanosensitive channels; we also tracked AMPA receptors on living neurons. …


Viscoelastic Transition And Yield Strain Of The Folded Protein, Yong Wang, Giovanni Zocchi Dec 2011

Viscoelastic Transition And Yield Strain Of The Folded Protein, Yong Wang, Giovanni Zocchi

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

For proteins, the mechanical properties of the folded state are directly related to function, which generally entails conformational motion. Through sub-Angstrom resolution measurements of the AC mechanical susceptibility of a globular protein we describe a new fundamental materials property of the folded state. For increasing amplitude of the forcing, there is a reversible transition from elastic to viscoelastic response. At fixed frequency, the amplitude of the deformation is piecewise linear in the force, with different slopes in the elastic and viscoelastic regimes. Effectively, the protein softens beyond a yield point defined by this transition. We propose that ligand induced conformational …


Critical Torque For Kink Formation In Double-Stranded Dna, Hao Qu, Yong Wang, Chiao-Yu Tseng, Giovanni Zocchi Nov 2011

Critical Torque For Kink Formation In Double-Stranded Dna, Hao Qu, Yong Wang, Chiao-Yu Tseng, Giovanni Zocchi

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We measure the bending energy of double-stranded DNA in the nonlinear (sharply bent) regime. The measurements are obtained from the melting curves of stressed DNA ring molecules. The nonlinear elastic behavior is captured by a single parameter: the critical torque τc at which the molecule develops a kink. In this regime, the elastic energy is linear in the kink angle. This phenomenology is the same as for the previously reported case of nicked DNA. For the sequences examined, we find τc=31 pN×nm. This critical torque corresponds to a characteristic energy scale (π/2)τc=12 kT room relevant for molecular biology processes associated …