Chemotaxis techniques

Volume 162. Immunochemical Techniques (Part L Chemotaxis and Inflammation)... 

Lopez-de-Victoria, G., Zimmer-Faust, R. K., and Lovell, C., Computer-assisted video motion analysis a powerful technique for investigating motility and chemotaxis, J. Microb. Meth., 23, 329, 1995. 

Monocyte migration was evaluated using a chemotaxis microchamber technique (Neuroprobe, Pleasanton, CA) using polycarbonate filters (5 p.m pore size Neuroprobe), as previously described (Sozzani et al., 1994). The chamber was Incubated at 37°C in air with 5% CO2 for 90 min. At the end of the incubation, filters were removed, and stained with Diff-Quik (Baxter, Rome, Italy). Five high power... 

Two bioassay techniques, the capillary method [58], and the drop method [63], have already been developed to study the chemotaxis of phytopathogenic zoospores and gametes of marine brown algae. We have devised a new procedure (the "particle method") which is a qualitative, rather than a quantitative, method of detecting an attractant after it has been absorbed on to an inorganic particle. This method has been used to study attractants of A. cochlioides zoospores in the roots of both spinach and pigweed (Chenopodium album). 

A variety of techniques for measuring bacterial motility and chemotaxis have been developed. The main ones are listed in Table 5 and described in brief. 

Table 5. Techniques used to measure motility and chemotaxis. ... 

In this technique, which is seldom used with bacteria, a stimulant gradient is established by diffusion between upper and lower wells, separated by a polycarbonate membrane [30]. Bacteria are placed in the lower well and a chemoattractant in the upper well. In the case of negative chemotaxis, the chemorepellent is included with the bacteria in the lower well. In either case, the bacteria follow the gradient, swim upwards through the polycarbonate membrane and accumulate in the... 

Tracking free-swimming bacteria under a microscope provides direct information not only on the motility of the bacteria but also on their chemotactic behavior. In the case of aberrant chemotaxis, this technique can provide information about whether the excitation or the adaptation step of chemotaxis is defective. Two main approaches have been used ... 

KangatharaHngam, N., Wang, L.Z. and Priscu, J.C. (1991). Evidence for bacterial chemotaxis to cyanobacteria from a radioassay technique. App. Environ. Microbiol. 57, 2395-2398. 

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