Do bacteria have an electric permanent dipole moment?

Abstract

In the scientific literature in the last 40 years, some data for the permanent dipole moment and the electric polarizability of Escherichia coli can be found [S.P. Stoylov, Colloid Electro-Optics – Theory, Techniques and Application, Academic Press, London, 1991]. In this paper the data based mainly on electro-optic investigation is considered as much as some dipolophoretic (most often called dielectrophoretic) studies. Serious grounds are found to doubt the conclusions made for the electric dipole moments of bacteria by one of the authors of this paper (SPS) and by some other researchers. This concerns both the permanent dipole moment and the electric charge dependent polarizabilities of E. coli. Here, along with the discussion of the old experimental data, new experimental data are shown for a strain of E. coli HB101. The conclusions from the analysis of the old and the new experimental data is that they do not provide correct evidence for the presence of a permanent dipole moment. It seems that all statements for the existence of electric permanent dipole moment in bacteria [S.P. Stoylov, Colloid Electro-Optics – Theory, Techniques and Application, Academic Press, London, 1991; S.P. Stoylov, S. Sokerov, I. Petkanchin, N. Ibroshev, Dokl. AN URSS 180 (1968) 1165; N.A. Tolstoy, A.A. Spartakov, A.A. Trusov, S.A. Schelkunova, Biofizika 11 (1966) 453; V. Morris, B. Jennings, J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. II 71 (1975) 1948; V. Morris, B. Jennings, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 55 (1978) 313; S.P. Stoylov, V.N. Shilov, S.S. Dukhin, S. Sokerov, I. Petkanchin, in: S.S. Dukhin (Ed.), Electro-optics of Colloids, Naukova Dumka, Kiev, 1977 (in Russian).] based on electro-optic studies are result of incorrect interpretation. Therefore, they should be further ignored.