Аннотация:For the first time, recombinant Escherichia coli cells expressingthermostable Luciola mingrelica firefly luciferase wereused to study the effect of the membrane-active antibiotic colistinon live cells. Simple, fast, and highly sensitive bioluminescentmethods were developed for measurement ofluciferase activity and ATP concentration inside and outsideE. coli cells incubated in a nutrient medium, or in saline.Luciferase proved to be an informative protein marker fordetecting the irreversible changes in cell membrane permeability.The study of kinetics of intra- and extracellular ATPconcentration at different concentrations of colistin showedthat the rate of decrease in intracellular ATP concentrationsignificantly exceeded the rate of accumulation of extracellularATP concentration. This fact could not be explained onlyby the release of ATP from the cell with an increase in thepermeability of the outer cell membrane under the action ofcolistin. The loss of a significant part of intracellular ATP inpresence of the colistin is probably due to a decrease in theactivity of the respiratory chain enzymes and ATP synthasewhich operate in the cytoplasmic cell membrane, which leadsto a decrease in the rate of ATP synthesis or even to its halt.
