PLAYING PRACTICAL GAMES WITH BACTERIA AND VIRUSES: EXPLORING THE MOLECULAR MECHANISMS BEHIND CLEVER CELLULAR STRATAGEMS

A Art& Unix?ni.yofCulifbrnia, Berkelq, CA

How do pathogenic bacteria sense their environment to deploy different survival strategies?Why do some viruses, like HIV, allow their host to live for long periods whereas others like Ebola do not? How precisely are these strategies encoded in the organism's biochemistry and genetics and how closely do they need to he followed to guarantee its survival'what are the optimal strategies for defeating these organisms or forcing them to do our bidding for industrial or medical benefit? Here I will demonstratr, using examples from our research on BacilhS subtilis Stress response and the design of HIV gene therapeutic strategies,how molecular biology combined with methods from statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics,and game theory can he used to pose and partially answer these questions as well as illustratr some of thc profound challenges in doing so.

moment at room temperature. Smaller particles are superparamagnetic and are only magnetic at room tempcrdture in the presence of a very strong magnetic field. Domain walls would form in larger particles thereby reducing the magnetic moment of the particle. By forming SMD crystals, the MB have maximized the magnetic remanence of each individual magnetosome ctystal. Most MB arrange their magnetosomes in a chain-like motif in which the total magnetic dipole moment of the cell is the sum of the moments of the individual clystdk Thus, the cell has maximized it magnetic dipole moment hy arranging its magnetosomes in chains. It is clear that the MB have found a way through evolution to construct a masterpiece of magnetic engineering. The biological advantages to the magnetosome and their use in biotechnology and as magnetofossils will also be discussed in this talk.

WHOLE-CELL MEMS BIOSENSORS FOR TOXICITY DETECTION

S &&in,

Hebreui Unixmity ofJmalem,Jerusalem, ISRAEL

NANOSCALE ENGINEERING OF MAGNETIC PARTICLES BY MAGNETOTACTIC BACTERIA

Ll A Bazylinski Iowa State Unimnity,Ames, 01
Magnetotactic bacteria (MBI are a group of mainly aquatic, motile, Gram-negative prokaryotes that belong phylogenetically in the Domain Bacteria.They are a metabolically and morpho logically diverse group but have in common the fact that their motility is influenced hy the Earths geomagnetic and other extemal magnetic fields, a phenomcnon known as magnetotaxis. Magnetotaxis is due to the presence of intracellular enveloped magnetic crystals called magnetosomes. MB biomineralize magnetosomes de novo through a process known as Biologically-Controlled Mineralization in which they apprar to control the composition, the shape, and the size of the magnetosome mineral phase. Maganetosomes contain crystals of two types: Fe oxides or Fe sulfides. The Fe oxides consist mainly of the mineral magnetite, Fe304, and the Fe sulfides, greigite, Fe,S,. In general, mature magnetosome crystals are stoichiometricFe,O,, while the Fe,S, crystals may contain impurities such as other transition metals and Fe sulfide precursors to Fe,S,. MB, in general, form only one compositional type o f magnetosome. M B synthesize species- and/or strain-specificcrystal morphologies: eithrr cubo-ocwhedral, elongated parallelepipedal, or tooth- or bullet-shaped particles. Idealized magnetosome particle morphologies derived from electron microscopic images show that they are of relatively high structural perfection. Mature magnetosome crystals lie in a very narrow size range, from about 35.120 nm. which has physical significance.Particles of Fe,O,and Fe,S, in this size range are single magnetic domains (SMD) and have a permanent stable magnetic dipole

At the heart of every biosensor is a biological entity, the purpose of which is to react with the target analyte(s:)and generate a readily quantifiable signal. Traditional hiosensors are based on the unique specificity of enzymes to their substrates, antibodies to antigens or that of nucleic acids to their complementary sequences. In recent years we have promoted the use of a different concept, that of whole cell biosensors. An intact live cell, containing a selected gene promoter fused to a reponer gene, serves both as the sensing and the reponing element; the specificity of the system is controlled by the choice of promoter. Using this approach we have constructed microbial sensing systems for the environmental detection of toxicants, genotoxicants, oxidants, and specific groups of halogenated organics, as well as cyanobacterial sensors of nutrients hioavaikability In order to turn these cells into a "real" biosensors, they need to be immobilized onro a solid platform and coupled into the signal transduction apparatus. Several directions that were pursued to achieve this aini will be mentioned including agar immobilization onto microtiter plates, alginate encapsulation at the tips of optic fibers, antibody-mediated adhesion to glass surfaces, embedding into sol-gel matrices and, most recently, integration into specialized biochip. The latter option will be described in detail.

MICROENGINEERING TOOLS TO STUDY CELLULAR MECHANOTRANSDUCTION

CS C b q JohnsHop~nsSchoolofMedicine, Baltimore,MD

Cells respond to many signals from their local environment, as a result of contact wich solid-state surfaces, soluble agents, neighboring cells, and mechanical forces. We are investigating the interactions between these Signals to understand how cells integrate the mechanical and biochemical signals in regulating endothelial cell function. Using conventional and unconventional microfabrication approaches originally developed in the semiconductor industry,we are engineering well-defined cellular micrornvironments 10 examine how cells recognize and respond to different cues in their microen-

ASM CONFERENCES