title: Effects of a static magnetic field on cell growth and gene expression in Escherichia coli.
abstract: Escherichia coli cultures exposed to a 300mT static magnetic field (SMF) were studied in order to analyse possible induced changes in cellular growth and gene expression. Biomass was evaluated by visible-light spectrometry and gene expression analyses were carried out by use of RNA arbitrarily primed PCR. The bacterial strain XL-1Blue, cultivated in traditional and modified Luria-Bertani medium, was exposed to SMF generated by permanent neodymium magnetic disks. The results show alterations induced by SMF in terms of increased cell proliferation and changes in gene expression compared with control groups. Three cDNAs were found to be expressed only in the exposed cells, whereas one cDNA was more expressed in the controls. One clone, expressed only in the exposed cells, corresponds to a putative transposase. This is of particular interest in that it suggests that exposure to a magnetic field may stimulate transposition activity.
authors.affiliation: Giorgio Fornaini Institute of Biological Chemistry, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, 61029 Urbino, PU, Italy. l.potenza@uniurb.it
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Potenza
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ubaldi
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Sanctis
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Bellis
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cucchiarini
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dachà
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D018533:Biomass; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D017931:DNA Primers; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000528:radiation effects*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012313:RNA / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D019895:Transposases / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D012313:RNA; D019895:Transposases