RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Frequency-dependent response of Chromobacterium violaceum to sonic stimulation, and altered gene expression associated with enhanced violacein production at 300 Hz JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 098186 DO 10.1101/098186 A1 Chinmayi Joshi A1 Pooja Patel A1 Abhishek Singh A1 Jinal Sukhadiya A1 Vidhi Shah A1 Vijay Kothari YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/04/098186.abstract AB Chromobacterium violaceum was subjected to sonic (100-2000 Hz) stimulation, and the effect on its cell yield and quorum sensing regulated pigment (violacein) production was investigated. Sound corresponding to the 300 Hz was found to promote (by 1.52 fold) violacein production the most, with only marginal impact on cell yield. Whole transcriptome analysis revealed that a total of 342 genes (i.e. 4.63% of whole genome) were significantly up-regulated in the sonic stimulated culture. Enhanced violacein production in the sound stimulated culture seems to have stemmed from enhanced expression of the genes involved in glucose metabolism through pentose phosphate pathway, resulting in increased availability of erythrose-4-phosphate, to be used for synthesis of tryptophan, the precursor for violacein synthesis. Multiple ribosomal subunit genes, enzyme coding genes, and those associated with secretion/transport were up-regulated owing to sonic stimulation. This study is a good demonstration of the ability of sound waves to alter bacterial metabolism.