Abstract
Gram-negative magnetic bacteria of the species Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in buffer solution. The highly positively charged silane trimethoxysilyl-propyl-di- ethylenetriamine was used to coat cover glass surfaces for adsorption of the bacteria. The resulting bacterial surface was flat, and in most cases it was not possible to resolve any struc- tures. Force curves were obtained for the substrate and for the bacteria while scanning laterally, in a technique called "force mapping". To obtain a quantitative measure for the elasticity of the cell wall the contribution of the internal osmotic pres- sure had to be estimated. There was no detectable change in the observed elastic response when the osmolarity of the sur- rounding medium was changed; this showed that the elastic response was due to the cell wall. It was thus possible to de- termine the effective compressibility of the cell wall, which was about 42 mN=m.
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