[The effect of dehydration dynamics on the characteristics of the E. coli cells]

It was shown that NMR and IR-spectroscopy may be employed to study the dynamics of cell dehydration on E. coli as an example. It was noted that the withdrawal of the cell binding water causes an increase of the relative protein quantity in beta-turn. Similar dependences on the relative humidity have been obtained both for chemical shift and the changes of the secondary protein structure and the number of viable cells. It was concluded that the processes associated with binding water removal should be considered as one of the main factors, causing the inactivation of the bacterial cells.