Cooperativity in E. coli cell response to resonance effect of weak extremely low frequency electromagnetic field

Abstract

The response of Escherichia coli cells to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF EMFs) was investigated at a magnetic induction amplitude of 30 μT. The influence of the EMF with a frequency of 9 Hz on the previously revealed resonance of the genome conformational state (GCS) has been evaluated. The resonance effect, which was measured by the method of anomalous viscosity time dependence, depended on the concentration of exposed cells. The effect was normalized to its own sham control at each concentration. The GCS changes increased with the concentration of exposed cells and reached a plateau at a value of about 6 × 10 3 cell ml −1. This means that cells interact during the resonance reaction to EMF, thus enhancing the effect. Saturation of the effect at concentrations close to those in the tissues of higher eukaryotes may reflect the importance of this parameter for the regulation of living systems. The experimentally established dependence of the resonance EMF effect on the concentration of exposed cells was described well by the theoretical model. This model was obtained by assuming that the cooperative effect was produced by the electromagnetic interaction of cells in the millimeter-submillimeter range of EMF. As in the case of the resonance reaction of E. coli cells to low intensity millimeter waves, the GCS changes were shown to correlate with the changes in the spectrum of the DNA-bound proteins.