Bacteria Chemotaxis in Porous Media

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

0310097 Smith The proposed project evaluates the significance of chemotaxis in porous media. Chemotaxis essentially means that bacteria swim towards higher concentrations. Thus, chemotaxis could have a significant influence on bacterial concentrations in contaminated groundwater systems. The project proposes to evaluate chemotaxis of a pure culture of Pseudomonas putida in response to TCE gradients. The bacteria will be labeled with paramagnetic particles to make them visible for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 1-D or 2-D column experiments. P. putida cannot use TCE as a growth medium and a basic assumption of this proposal is that the effect of growth and decay can be neglected. Mathematical modeling will be used as a basis to interpret experimental results.