Cytoplasmic membrane polarization in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria grown in the absence and presence of tetracycline.

The ability of numerous diverse compounds and ions to cross the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane by diffusion and active transport is highly dependent on cytoplasmic membrane fluidity, which can be measured using fluorescent probes to estimate membrane polarization values. However, membrane polarization data are lacking for most bacterial species. The cytoplasmic membrane polarization values for Arthrobacter sp. ATCC 21908, Bacillus cereus NRC 3045, Pseudomonas fluorescens R2F, Pseudomonas putida NRC 2986 and Escherichia coli C600 bacterial cells were spectrofluorometrically measured over a temperature range from 10 to 50 degrees C, and in the absence and presence of 1 microg/ml tetracycline, using the fluorescent probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) to obtain new information on their membrane fluidity. At an assay temperature of 10 degrees C, E. coli cells grown in the absence of tetracycline exhibited the highest cytoplasmic membrane polarization value (least fluid membrane) of 0.446, followed by values of 0.392, 0.371, 0.344 and 0.293, respectively, for B. cereus, Arthrobacter sp., P. fluorescens and P. putida. At an assay temperature of 30 degrees C, the polarization values ranged from 0.357 to 0.288 for cells grown in the absence of tetracycline, regardless of the species. B. cereus grown in the presence of 1 microg/ml tetracycline had lower polarization values than when grown in the absence of this antibiotic at all assay temperatures. Regardless of the absence or presence of 1 microg/ml tetracycline in the growth medium, all bacterial species generally exhibited a more fluid membrane as the assay temperature increased from 10 to 50 degrees C. To our knowledge, these are some of the first cytoplasmic membrane polarization values reported for these Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria over a broad temperature range and also for cells grown in the presence of tetracycline.