Electrophoresis bacterial surface

Particle electrophoresis has proved to be very useful in many areas of theoretical and practical interface and colloid science, including model polymer latex and silver halide systems, and more practical problems related to water purification, detergency, emulsion science, the characterization of bacterial surfaces, blood cells, viruses, and so on. With the advent of more sophisticated computer data analysis and laser hght sources, the limits of resolution for particle sizes that can be analyzed has been, and is being, steadily reduced, so that with proper (and more expensive) instrumentation, the electrophoretic nature of particles in the size range of a few nanometers can be readily determined. 

The fundamental need to characterise and quantify bacterial strains in natural biofilms in order to understand their potential role as producers of settlement signals highlights the need for molecular techniques which can be used to identify and quantify bacteria in situ. For example, low abundance of putatively deterrent bacterium on surfaces in situ may preclude the production of sufficient quantities of deterrent metabolites. Appropriate techniques for such characterization include denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)107 and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)108 and would in principle allow for the detection and quantification of all species in the biofilm. 

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