Efficacy of Penicillin-Streptomycin as a Repellent on Chemotaxis Behavior of Escherichia Coli - Dataset

A wide range of chemicals have been found to cause negative chemotaxis in Escherichia coli. Here, we report Penicillin-Streptomycin (Pen-Strep) as a repellent that can repel different strains of E. coli. E. coli DH5α grown in LB broth. These bacterial solutions were exposed to 4% agar loaded with PenStrep as a drug releasing system in 12-well plates. Penicillin at 2500 units/ml (ug/ml for Streptomycin) concentrations (25%) of the PenStrep-Agar loading system were prepared for chemotaxis evaluation. Repelling of the E. coli was clearly observed via microscopy within 30 mins of the exposure. Moreover, continuous video acquisition and analysis by real-time recording over 8 hours showed a distinct region with a high density of cells in the region away from the repellant and vice-versa for the region close to the repellant. The optical density measurements indicated a considerable reduction in cell aggregation near the repellent, while a majority of the cells were observed to be distributed farther away from the repellent area. Stimulated single cell trajectory tracking showed movement away from the repellant in the y-direction at a velocity of 0.017 µm/s when exposed to 25% PenStrep chemical gradient. Unstimulated cells showed normal motility with repeated run-and-tumble movement in random direction in the control groups. This study provides a proof of concept for high-throughput analysis of the selective chemotaxis behavior of the microbial community by microbiome engineering to achieve the goal of beneficial biofilm formation to inhibit biofilm formation by corrosive bacteria.