Selective intracellular lactate invisibility in Enterococcus faecalis

In this article we will demonstrate that differences in Hahn T2 relaxation of the 1H NMR signal from cytosolic and extracellular lactate can be exploited to monitor lactate concentration gradients in bacterial cells and provide information on lactate transport mechanisms. As a by-product of this study we have determined that there are at least three pools of lactate in bacterial cells with differing visibility in the NMR experiment. This has serious implications for the spectral editing techniques that are so vital for in vivo spectroscopy.