Study on biological effect of La3+ on Escherichia coli by atomic force microscopy

The biological effects of rare-earth metal ions on the organism have been studied using La3+ as a probe ion and Escherichia coli cell as a target organism. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies reveal that La3+ substantially changes the structure of the outer cell membrane responsible for the cell permeability. Significant damages of the outer cell membrane are observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after the introduction of La3+. In result, the cell becomes easily attacked by lysozyme. Moreover, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurements show considerable amount of Ca2+ and Mg2+ in the supernatant from the La3+ exposed cells. It is proposed that La3+ can replace Ca2+ from the binding sites because of their close ionic radii and similar ligand specificities. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which forms the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, could not serve as the cellular envelope steadily after Ca2+ and Mg2+ released from their binding sites on the LPS patches.